STEVE INSKEEP, host: NPR's business news starts with another big drug company merger.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: Pharmaceutical companies have been nervous as they watch their patents expire and drug prices fall. So they've been trying to secure their futures by swallowing up rivals or buying up smaller biotech companies. Earlier this week we heard about a planned $41 billion deal between Merck and Schering-Plough and today we have news of another major drug merger, the third of the year. The Swiss company Roche and San Francisco biotech giant Genentech call it a friendly agreement, though they've been battling since last summer. Roche already owned a part of the U.S. biotech company but it wanted full control and full revenues. Genentech's board gave the okay only after Roche raised its offer to 95 bucks a share, which makes the deal worth about $47 billion.
In what's being described as the largest takeover in Swiss corporate history, Roche says it has agreed to buy the remaining shares of Genentech for $46.8 billion. Genentech's board gave its approval only after Roche raised its offer to $95 a share.