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(Reuters) – The Swiss pharmaceutical group Roche Holding AG is about to enter into an acquisition contract with US biotech company Spark Therapeutics Inc., the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing people close to the case.
The deal for Spark could be announced Monday, if not sooner, at a price of nearly $ 5 billion (3.8 billion pounds sterling), but could still fail, the newspaper quoted unidentified sources as saying. . Spark's market value was just under $ 2 billion at the close of trading on Friday.
The newspaper reported that there was at least one other unidentified bidder for Spark on Friday.
Roche spokeswoman Simone Oeschger said on Saturday that the company was not commenting on rumors or market speculation. Spark officials could not be reached for comment by Reuters.
Spark is a gene therapy company with a portfolio of potential products for blindness, hemophilia and neurodegenerative diseases.
(Report by Ben Klayman in Detroit, edited by Paul Simao)
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