Jack Scannell

Roche Drops Illumina Bid on Concerns of Flawed Technology

Roche Holding AG is abandoning a $6.7 billion bid for Illumina Inc. because investors are concerned the U.S. company’s gene-mapping technology may go the way of the 8-track or the floppy disc.

Market Volatility Raises Risk of Heart Attacks

Investors are more likely to suffer from heart attacks and cardiac deaths when market volatility rises, according to Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd. health-care analysts.

Bayer Cuts Sales Forecast, Sees No Growth in Plastics Revenue This Year

Bayer AG cut its forecast for sales growth this year amid a disappointing performance for its plastics business.

Merck KGaA to Cut Employment After Drug Failures

Merck KGaA plans to cut jobs across its drug and chemical businesses after setbacks in developing medicines for cancer and multiple sclerosis.

Merck KGaA Woos Investors Irked by `Bunker' Culture, Dearth of New Drugs

Merck KGaA Chief Financial Officer- designate Matthias Zachert may make his first task repairing the German company’s relationship with investors and analysts as he seeks to revive one of Europe’s worst-performing drug stocks.

Diabetes Death Watch Slipped Into Health Law by Lilly, Novo

More than 70,000 Americans a year die from complications of diabetes, making it the country’s fifth-largest medical killer. While that sounds dire, Novo Nordisk A/S says the real picture may be worse.

Roche Sees Profit Growth in 2012 on Cost Cutting as Drug Sales Accelerate

Roche Holding AG, the world’s biggest maker of cancer drugs, forecast high single-digit percentage growth in earnings per share this year, disappointing some investors as new products start to contribute to sales.

Merck KGaA Gains Most Since January 2009 as Profit Beats Analyst Estimates

Merck KGaA, the German maker of the Erbitux cancer drug, rose the most almost three years in Frankfurt trading after third-quarter profit beat analysts’ estimates on growth at the Merck Serono pharmaceutical and Millipore equipment businesses.

Roche Seeks ‘Targeted Acquisitions,’ Not Abbott-Sized Deal

Roche Holding AG will maintain a strategy of “targeted acquisitions” and isn’t seeking a mega- merger, Chief Executive Officer Severin Schwan said in comments that may rule out a bid for Abbott Laboratories’ prescription- drug spinoff.

Fed Dissenters, Euro Transaction Tax, Zynga, Apple, Melanoma: Compliance

Charles Plosser, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, said the Fed will probably need to raise interest rates before mid-2013 and that policy makers should have waited to see how the economy performed before pledging to hold rates at record lows for two years.

"A lot of people in the sequencing industry really do not know which technology is going to win in the end."

- Jack Scannell on Apr 18, 2012

London

Europe

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Obama Says IRS Targeting of Tea Party Groups ‘Outrageous’

‘Iron Man 3’ Tops Weekend Sales Again With $72.5 Million

Treasury 10-Year Yields Reach Seven-Week High on Growth

Most U.S. Stocks Fall After Record Highs Amid Sales Data

Rally Matches 1990s Gains With Valuations 28% Lower