Bio Screening Industry News

WA researchers have taken the first step towards developing new anti-cancer medications that could activate a gene shown to block the growth of cancerous cells.

Led by Western Australian Institute for Medical Research (WAIMR) Director Professor Peter Klinken, the scientists have screened a large collection of drug-like molecules and recently identified a number of compounds which can increase levels of the Hls5 gene.

“This discovery is very encouraging and a great step forward in our quest to create new cancer treatments,” said Professor Klinken.

“Because of the role Hls5 plays in keeping cell growth at a normal rate, we expect that these compounds will greatly slow down the growth of cancer cells.”

The Hls5 tumour suppressor gene was reported by Professor Klinken’s team in 2004.

The group’s research has revealed that people who don’t have the gene - or those who have a mutated or inactive form of the gene - are more likely to develop certain types of cancer.

In conjunction with WA-based biotechnology company BioPharmica, the WAIMR team has spent more than a year screening 70,000 compounds which increase Hls5 levels.

“Our preliminary data reveals that several of these compounds do indeed markedly slow down the growth of human cancer cells,” said Professor Klinken.

“Importantly, we also know through computer modeling that nearly all of these compounds have drug-like qualities.”

“From here, we take the research to the next phase of laboratory testing with the ultimate hope of investigating if one of these molecules can be used to create a fresh treatment that can slow growth of cancer cells in patients.”

Healthcare company AstraZeneca Plc (AZN: News, Chart, Quote ,AZN.L: News, Chart, Quote ) said Friday that it signed an innovative new partnership with the National Cancer Centre Singapore, or NCCS, and the National University Hospital, or NUH, for development of anti-cancer compounds. The collaboration is spelt out in a Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU.

As per the MOU, AstraZeneca and the Singapore institutions will enter into a collaborative agreement that spans both clinical and pre-clinical development activities.

AstraZeneca noted that the partnership also includes a Training Programme placement with the Manchester Cancer Research Centre, with whom AstraZeneca has a formal research alliance. Singapore Economic Development Board partly supports the training programme. The purpose of the training programme is to train a pool of clinical research professionals for both private-sector and public-sector research labs.

According to AstraZeneca, the partnership aims to further build its drug development capabilities in Asia and ultimately accelerate access to new medicines of potential benefit to patients with inoperable Hepatocellular Carcinoma, or HCC. HCC is a cancer that is particularly prevalent in Asia and accounts for approximately one million deaths annually worldwide.

Under the terms of the clinical development collaboration, NCCS and NUH can access AstraZeneca compounds that have already undergone initial clinical testing in the West.

The institutions have already identified AstraZeneca’s two compounds for clinical screening in inoperable HCC during 2008 and 2009. The company stated that more compounds would be made available at a rate of one per year, for the duration of the partnership, which exists until 2012.

For both clinical and pre-clinical activities, AstraZeneca maintained the alternative to presume further development and marketing of all drugs made available as part of the partnership deal.

AZN closed Thursday’s regular trade at $49.04, up $0.34, on a volume of 1.2 million shares.

GSK gives the Harvard Stem Cell Institute $25 million.

Today, the pharma company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced a five-year, $25-million-plus collaborative agreement with the Harvard Stem Cell Institute to develop new methods for screening drugs with stem cells.

“GSK believes stem cell science has great potential to aid the discovery of new medicines by improving the screening, identification, and development of new compounds,” said Patrick Vallance, head of drug discovery at GSK, in a statement released by the company.

Big Pharma has mostly shied away from investing in stem-cell research. But drug screening, which some scientists say is likely to be one of the biggest near-term benefits of stem cells, is a growing area of interest.

Because stem cells can be differentiated into any type of cell in the body, they present an ideal source for screening. For example, scientists can determine how a candidate heart-disease drug affects heart cells and also look for potential side effects in liver or other cell types.

The time appears ripe for investing, because scientists can now use new reprogramming techniques to develop stem cells from patients with specific diseases. (While no one has yet reported this, word among stem-cell researchers is that it has been done.) That means they can make nerve cells from stem cells derived from an Alzheimer’s patient and then examine how candidate Alzheimer’s drugs affect the diseased cells.

Aarhus Denmark — July 23, 2008 — CLC bio has just released a scientific white paper which confirms, that, in benchmarking tests, CLC bio’s new algorithm for assembly of Next Generation Sequencing data is the fastest one available. Not only is CLC bio’s algorithm considerably faster, but it also provides a better quality of the results, compared to other algorithms benchmarked in the white paper.

Assistant Professor at Rutgers University, Dr. Todd P. Michael, states, ‘The speed of CLC bio’s new algorithm for reference assembly of Next Generation Sequencing data raises the bar to a level currently unmatched by any competitor. When CLC bio continues this impressive rate of development, and eventually also handles SOLiD’s Color Space analysis in the same convincing manner, this could easily become a de facto tool for scientists working with Next Generation Sequencing analysis.’

Instead of using around 3 to 4 hours assembling 8.5 million reads against a whole human genome, CLC bio’s assembly algorithm accomplished the same calculation in little more than half an hour, which means at least 5 times faster than the closest competitor.

For the assembly of large data sets, the increase in speed is even bigger: When assembling 86 million reads against the whole human genome, CLC bio’s assembly algorithm is more than 14 times faster, meaning an assembly normally taking almost 40 hours can be done in less than two! At the same time, CLC bio’s algorithm provides a better quality of the results delivered with more than 85% accuracy, compared to around 83% for the other algorithms in the white paper.

Another highly interesting aspect of this improved assembly algorithm is the modest requirements of physical memory - at no point during the benchmark tests did CLC bio’s algorithm require more than 8GB RAM.

The benchmark tests were conducted by comparing both 8.5 million reads and 86 million reads against a whole human genome, kindly supplied by the Beijing Genomics Institute. The data set for the benchmark tests was sequenced on Illumina’s Solexa platform and each read had a length of 35 nucleotides.

Once the assembly algorithm will be released in August, it will be available both in a command-line version on CLC bio’s Bioinformatics Cell platform and through CLC Genomics Workbench, which offers an intuitive graphical interface for analyzing and visualizing Next Generation Sequencing data. CLC bio’s white paper is free to download for everyone at www.clccell.com/ngs

About CLC bio

CLC bio is the world’s leading full-service bioinformatics solution provider, solely focusing on the development of bioinformatics: software, hardware, data analysis, and custom-designed bioinformatics algorithms.

CLC bio’s mission is to be among the most innovative bioinformatics companies in the 21st century. This is realized through:

• Development of bioinformatics software and hardware based on the latest scientific findings
• User-friendly, integrated and intuitive cross-platform software solutions
• Continuous focus on customer needs and superior customer service
• Frequent product updates including the latest IT technologies and bioinformatics algorithms
• A flexible IT architecture, enabling customers to buy or develop individualized solutions at a reasonable price

First Stand-Alone Partnering Conference Held in the USA to Attract the Biggest Names in Global Biotech for Two Days of Intense Networking

Carlsbad, CA. and Atlanta, GA., July 24, 2008: With only two months until the start of BioPharm America(TM) in Atlanta, September 9-10, 2008, EBD Group today announced the conference’s program highlights covering a wide selection of important industry topics.

The eagerly anticipated BioPharm America partnering conference is expected to bring out many well known and respected names in the biotech industry and to be the most international stand-alone partnering event held on US soil.

Program highlights include:

–    How is the Evolving Bio/Pharma Drug Development Landscape Affecting Transactions? As partnering continues to be the “it factor” in the bio / pharma industry, the key questions are: Can the buyers and sellers reconcile their very different project management cultures and deal requirements? How will these differences manifest themselves in the types of transactions that will be seen over the next 3-5 years? How will the recent fondness for expensive platform deals reveal the genius, folly or desperation of big pharma’s new R&D strategies?

Dr. Bruce Robertson, Managing Director, H.I.G. Ventures will moderate a panel featuring  Rob Wills, Vice President Alliance Management, Johnson & Johnson; Dr. Christy Shaffer, President and CEO, Inspire Pharmaceuticals; and Sun Park, Vice President, Business Development, MedImmune, to examine these critical strategic issues and also discuss the role of investors, venture capital and private equity, in determining the partnering strategy of development-stage companies.

–    The New Oncology Partnerships – Paradigms for Novel Therapies or More of the Same? Oncology has exhibited the most venture investment and deal flow over the last two years. With large mergers and acquisitions, such as Astellas’ acquisition of Agensys and BMS’s acquisition of Adnexus, the oncology company landscape has changed dramatically. This is giving rise to important new questions: How will these new big players organize their oncology portfolio? How will their alliance strategies change?

On the other side of the spectrum there is an abundance of early stage companies exploring new technologies and pathways. From among these emerging players, which technologies are the most promising, and which companies have the potential to be the strongest partners?

These important questions will be tackled in this not to be missed session that features Dr. Nils Debus, Senior Director, Global Business Development and Licensing, Bayer Schering; Dr. Aya Jakobovits, Executive Vice President, Head, Research and Development, Agensys - Astellas Group; and Dr. William P. Peters, Chairman and CEO, Adherex Technologies.  

–    Novel Approaches to Treating Metabolic Diseases. Metabolic diseases such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes are growing and significant health problems for our society. These diseases represent large opportunities for biotech and pharma companies to develop and market novel drug therapies that address these debilitating disorders.

A leading practicing physician will run a panel featuring Dr. Thomas Landh, Director, Strategy and Sourcing, Novo Nordisk; and Dr. Eric Tomlinson, President and CEO, Altea Therapeutics to generate important insights on the challenges and unmet medical needs of this growing patient population and provide an update from industry experts on novel therapeutic agents and drug delivery technologies designed to improve patient outcomes.

–    Fighting Temptation: Why Bigger and Richer is not Always Better in Drug Development Partnerships. While many big pharma companies are in the midst of deconstructing and overhauling their drug discovery and development processes, many mid-tier pharma continue to demonstrate why they are more adept at managing pipelines and getting the most out of partnerships.

This session will examine how these mid-tier companies can continue to maintain their edge in the face of big pharma’s increasingly generous deal terms that promise new partners and newly acquired companies that they can retain their autonomy.

–    Exploring the Link Between Portfolio Strategy and Business Development.

Moderated by Ben Bonifant, Vice President, Business Development, Campbell Alliance, joined by Dr. Ellen Strahlman, Vice President, Licensing, Worldwide Business Development, Pfizer; Dr. Manuel Litchman, Vice President and Head, Oncology Business Development and Licensing, Novartis; and Steven Xanthoudakis, Director, Licensing and External Research, Merck Frosst Canada, this session will explore the link between portfolio strategy and business development.

It is reasonable to expect that a company’s business development activities should directly relate to—and support—its overall portfolio strategy. However, companies vary in the degree to which business development actively contributes to the portfolio strategy development, and often that strategy focuses on the commercial potential of the internal pipeline. Once pipeline gaps are identified, efforts shift to involve business development to help fill those gaps. If the two functions remain separated, business development can often find it difficult to align newly acquired assets with the investment priorities of the development pipeline. A successful approach incorporates considerations of business development opportunities simultaneously with asset prioritization decisions of the internal pipeline. In practice, aligning strategy with implementation can be easier said than done, and different companies apply different organizational approaches to achieving this goal.

–    Antibodies - The Solution to Big Pharma’s Problems? 

Antibodies have received intense interest during the past several years, and for good reason:

O     antibodies are the fastest growing drug class with close to one thousand antibody projects currently in research and/or clinical development;

o     antibody products and technologies are at the center of many biotech-pharma and biotech-biotech deal-making activities; and

o     antibodies have energized M&A activity as many small and big biotech companies with antibody technologies and pipelines have been acquired by big pharma at high valuations.

Are these dynamics just a reflection of an overheated trend that will cool down in the not-too-distant future, or are we in a new era where streamlined 3rd, 4th and nth generation antibody therapies will come to dominate drug development pipelines, conquer new indications and provide widely available, efficacious and safe therapies?

Moderated by Dr. Fritz Rudert, General Manager, FHR Consulting will be joined by Dr. Simon Moroney, CEO, Morphosys; Jette Asboe Lassen, Director of Business Development, Symphogen; Dr. Masamichi Koike, CEO and President, BioWa; and Dr. Margaret Karow, Executive Director, Research, Amgen, to discuss whether antibodies have actually come closer to being a “magic bullet” or are just another promising drug class among the rest.

–    Translational Medicine - How do we Fund Novel, Breakthrough Research More Efficiently? Perhaps the greatest challenge facing modern medicine today is the reconciliation of the short-term, earnings driven requirements of today’s medical marketplace, with the risky, capital-intensive, decade-long process usually required to bring transformative medical ideas to fruition. This tension is felt intensely at the intersection between the early, most innovative ideas and the point where substantial funding is required to move them forward. The techniques and processes required to move past this hurdle are what the medical research community have come to refer to as translational medicine.

Moderated by John P. Richert, Vice President Business & Technology Development Program, North Carolina Biotechnology Center, this session will bring together practitioners of translational medicine including universities that are focused on adding significant commercial value to a product prior to licensing; research institutions that are uniquely positioned to work in this nexus and companies that have been successful in crossing this hurdle.

–    ABCs of Licensing.

Young companies often look to that first licensing deal to create a revenue stream for the company. Most of these same companies are just not successful in “landing” that first deal. The reasons for such high failure rates can often be attributed to the fact that no one ever taught the young company the ABCs of Licensing.

Although not a blueprint, there are some best practices that, if followed, are more likely to lead to a strong licensing arrangement for both the licensor and the licensee.

Moderated by Diane Romza-Kutz, Chair, Life Sciences Practice Group, Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LL, this interactive session will work through the steps to consider in securing a potential licensee’s interest, being ready for a licensee to engage in negotiations and concluding a successful license arrangement.

EBD Group’s events are widely recognized as being the gold standard for highly productive bio / pharma partnering meetings. Like all EBD Group events, partnering at BioPharm America 2008 is powered by partneringONE(TM), the industry’s most advanced partnering system. partneringONE enables participants to efficiently mine a large pool of potential partners, and identify and pre-arrange private one-to-one meetings with dozens of company targets.

General registration for BioPharm America is now available at http://www.ebdgroup.com/bpa/registration.htm

Advance media registration for BioPharm America is now available online. Registration is complimentary for credentialed members of the media. To register, please visit http://www.ebdgroup.com/bpa/press_reg.htm.

About BioPharm America

BioPharm America is where biotech industry partnerships get started. Meet one-to-one with biotech and pharma executives from around the world to identify and enter strategic relationships. BioPharm America is the only partnering event in North America based on the same winning formula as EBD Group’s acclaimed European events BIO-Europe and BIO-Europe Spring(R). BioPharm America is simply an unmatched opportunity for companies across the biotech value-chain to meet and do business.  For more information please visit www.biopharmamerica.com.

About EBD Group

EBD Group is the leading partnering firm for the global biotechnology industry. Since 1993, firms in the life sciences have leveraged EBD Group’s partnering conferences, technology and services to identify business opportunities and develop strategic relationships that drive their business.

EBD Group’s conferences are run in collaboration with leading industry players and international trade associations. They include BIO-Europe, the world’s largest stand-alone life science partnering conference (organized with the support of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, BIO); BIO-Europe Spring(R); BioPharm America(TM) (EBD’s new North American partnering event); and BioEquity Europe (co-organized with BioCentury Publications and BIO).

EBD’s novel, Web-based, partnering service partneringONE(TM) is also used at numerous third-party events around the world. Outside of the conference format, EBD Group’s consultants can provide hands-on assistance for firms seeking to in- or out-license products and technologies. EBD Group has offices in the USA and Europe.

Select Biosciences is proud to announce their inaugural AgriGenomics World Congress. This year’s event will take place at the NH Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky in Amsterdam.

AgriGenomics.eu

Alongside an exhibition of selected scientific posters and service providers, Select Biosciences is organizing a two day event gathering some of the most influential players in the field from Europe, America and across the globe.

The agenda will include world leading research from renowned speakers including:

• Karen Century
  Senior Scientist, Mendel Biotechnology
• Jim Dunwell
  Professor, University of Reading
• Dominique Job
  Laboratory Head, Bayer CropScience and CNRS
• Johnathan Napier
  Research Leader, Rothamsted Research
• Andrew Paterson
  Distinguished Research Professor and Director of the Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory, University of Georgia
• Joseph Petolino
  Senior Scientist, Dow AgroSciences
• Tatiana Tatusova
  Genome Group Coordinator, National Centre for Biotechnology Information, National Institutes of Health
• And many more…

The full two day agenda includes the following sessions:

• Metabolic Engineering
• System-Based Approaches
• Informatics
• Traits & Applications

To guarantee a high attendance at this exciting event Select Biosciences will maintain their traditional low registration fees and group booking discounts.

Full conference passes include admission to all sessions and the exhibition as well as conference documentation.

Lunch, coffee breaks and the drinks reception provide ample time for networking and to continue discussions from the question and answer sessions.

The conferences division of Select Biosciences Ltd. is focused on organizing specialist biomedical meetings each year. Experts from both academia and commerce are invited to present timely information from current research through to commercial implementation of new technologies. These events also provide a unique networking facility and the opportunity to reach a highly targeted scientific audience.
www.selectbiosciences.com

ROCKVILLE, MD and KYOTO, JAPAN–July 28, 2008 - Seegene, Inc. and Shimadzu Corporation today announced a strategic partnership to combine Seegene’s Seeplex(R) multi-pathogen tests with Shimadzu’s MultiNA (1) analytical platform. Under terms of the deal, Shimadzu and Seegene will collaborate on integrating the Seeplex polymerase chain reaction-based tests with Shimadzu’s MultiNA high-speed electrophoresis system to provide a highly sensitive, high-throughput multi-pathogen detection and analysis solution.

“This strategic agreement reinforces our plan to bring solutions, and not only products, to our customers,” said Dr. Jong-Yoon Chun, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Seegene. “Shimadzu’s MultiNA is outstanding in the market for electrophoresis analysis and a perfect match for the Seeplex family of multi-pathogen tests.”

“Seegene’s novel multi-pathogen detection test working with Shimadzu’s next-generation electrophoresis systems creates an unparalleled screening platform for laboratories around the world,” said Yoshiyuki Togawa, General Manager, Shimadzu. “Seeplex tests running on MultiNA is the fast, accurate and efficient way for laboratories to screen for the most rampant and debilitating pathogens infecting people around worldwide.”

Shimadzu’s MultiNA is a microchip electrophoresis system that quickly and easily performs DNA and RNA nucleic acid size confirmation and quantification. The system uses microchip technology to conduct fully automated high-speed electrophoresis separation, and fluorescence detection to perform high-sensitivity analysis.

Seeplex tests are based on a breakthrough multiplexing PCR technology capable of detecting multiple pathogens in a single tube. Seeplex-based tests deliver maximum specificity, reproducibility and sensitivity and can be applied to a broad range of molecular diagnostics, including human, animal, plant and microorganism. Currently, Seegene’s Seeplex multi-pathogen detection tests offer labs worldwide simple, cost-effective and comprehensive screening for STDs, respiratory viruses, human papillomaviruses, sepsis and pneumonia.

(1) MultiNA is Research Use Only.

About Shimadzu

Founded in 1875, Shimadzu Corporation develops and manufactures analytical and monitoring equipment for science laboratories worldwide. Its products include imaging systems for medical diagnosis such as ultrasound systems and mobile X-ray systems, as well as spectrophotometers and chromatography systems for the life science sector. For more information about Shimadzu’s extensive line of laboratory offerings, please visit www.shimadzu.com.

About Seegene

Seegene, Inc. is pioneering the field of multi-pathogen testing. Seegene applies its novel and proprietary Seeplex system utilizing “DPO (Dual Priming Oligo)” and “ACP (Annealing Control Primer)” to create multi-pathogen tests delivering maximum specificity, reproducibility and sensitivity. With over 360 citations and several patents and patents pending, Seegene has been offering advanced molecular diagnostics services to over 1,200 major global institutes in more than 30 countries. Seegene is actively working with both the scientific and OEM business community. Seegene’s mission is to integrate Seeplex with disease diagnostics to provide a new guideline for effectively treating patients. Seegene was founded in 2000 and is based in Rockville, MD and Seoul, Korea. For more information please visit www.seegene.com.

All trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

The biotech firm faces burdens that come with age, and the Swiss drug maker looks like a good partner.

NEW YORK (Fortune) — As Genentech’s board weighs Monday’s $43.7 billion merger proposal from Roche, the South San Francisco biotech has one overarching reason to fall deeper into the arms of the Swiss drug maker that already owns most of its stock: Genentech’s “biological clock” is ticking.

Market and regulatory forces are driving biotech and Big Pharma closer together. For 30 years the biotech industry has led a charmed life. Companies that develop biologic remedies such as Genentech (DNA), Amgen (AMGN, Fortune 500), Gilead Sciences (GILD) and Genzyme (GENZ) have been free to flourish without many of the regulatory and competitive pressures that giant pharmaceutical companies face. That relative freedom allowed global biotech sales to grow 12.5 percent (to $75 billion last year), compared to a 6.4 percent rate of sales growth for Big Pharma drugs.

But this magical existence is likely to come to an end - and soon. Hooking up with a big drug company increasingly looks like the sensible thing to do. “There are going to be heavier burdens placed on biotech over the next five or so years” says Murray Aitken, a healthcare market analyst with IMS Health. Aitken believes that as patients spend more on biotech remedies, doctors and insurers will scrutinize prices more closely.

At the same time, biotechs are likely to experience greater competition in disease areas like cancer from big drug companies that have bought smaller biotechs or developed alliances with them. Meanwhile, the regulatory picture for biotechs is radically changing. As drugs from the first wave of biotech approvals two decades ago are approaching patent expiration, patients, doctors and insurers are demanding inexpensive alternatives to biotech drugs. Congress and the Food and Drug Administration are under pressure to fashion a new regulatory pathway for federal review and approval of generic biotech drugs, or “biosimilars.”

In June 2007, the Senate health committee passed the “Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act,” a law that seeks to allow biosimilars into the marketplace. The proposal is still wending its way through Congress, but it is seen as inevitable. “Sure, companies would have to adjust,” says Sandi Dennis, an attorney for a biotech industry trade group. “But a new framework would bring predictability, which is useful.”

For its part, Genentech is in a good position relative to its peers. The company’s sales grew 19 percent to $8.5 billion in 2007, thanks to its three flagship cancer medicines Avastin, Herceptin and Rituxan. Genentech also has a brimming pipeline of future medicines in development.

Even so, when deciding whether to sell Roche the 44% portion of Genentech it doesn’t already own, the biotech is likely to consider Roche’s experience selling in mature markets, as well as the Swiss pharma’s regulatory acumen.

Genentech’s board will likely conclude that it’s time to settle down - because the biotech’s idyllic youth is coming to a close. 

NEW YORK (Thomson Financial) - Shares of Genentech Inc. surged to their highest price in more than two years on Monday after the San Francisco-based biotechnology company confirmed its receipt of a buyout offer from Roche.

The shares jumped 14% to $93.09 on Monday on a volume of 8 million shares. The issue’s 30-day volume is 3.8 million shares. An intraday high of $94.19 represents the best price for the shares since January 2006.

Roche (other-otc: RHHBY.PK - news - people ), which currently owns 55.9% of Genentech (nyse: DNA - news - people ), offered to rest of the company’s stock that it doesn’t already own for $89 a share. The offer represents a 8.8% premium to the stock’s Friday closing price of $81.82.

Genentech said a special committee of its board composed of the independent directors will evaluate the proposal.

Ryan Vlastelica

In what could become one of the biggest biotech deals ever, Roche announced this morning that it was offering to pay $43.7 billion for the remaining Genentech (NYSE: DNA) shares it doesn’t already own.

Roche and Genentech have had a long and complicated relationship since the 1980s, after Genentech outlicensed one of its first approved drugs to Roche. In 1990, Roche upped the ante, acquiring a nearly 60% stake in Genentech (technically a merger). In exchange, Roche paid Genentech nearly $500 million up front, and got the option to buy the remaining outstanding Genentech shares later at a predetermined price.

Roche exercised this option in 1999, buying the remainder of Genentech for a split-adjusted $10 and change per share. Barely more than one month later, Roche brought Genentech back onto the public markets in its current form, after selling another chunk of its Genentech stake at barely more than a split-adjusted $12 a share. In 2000, it again put another large portion of its Genentech stake onto the public markets, but kept a 58% ownership interest in the company.

If Roche’s offer today goes through (subject to Genentech shareholder approval), Roche would pay $89 per share to acquire the remaining 44% of Genentech shares not under its current control — its second total buyout of the company in less than 10 years. This offer represents an 8.8% premium to Genentech shares’ Friday price.

Last week, Genentech released fairly positive second-quarter financial results. Both of Genentech’s top two cancer drugs, Rituxan and Avastin, are growing sales like gangbusters, even against rivals compounds from drugmakers like GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), and ImClone Systems (Nasdaq: IMCL).

Its relationship with Genentech has always given Roche first dibs on marketing any newly approved Genentech drug outside the U.S. This sweetheart deal for Roche gave it the marketing rights to blockbuster compounds like Avastin and Herceptin. But it was set to expire in 2015, allowing Genentech to offer newly approved compounds to other partners. Keeping those potentially lucrative future compounds in its pocket may largely explain why Roche wants to bring Genetech fully back into the fold.