Roche CEO would not rule out move into rare diseases

PARIS (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG would not rule out a move into treatments for rare diseases, Chief Executive Severin Schwan said on Wednesday.

"It doesn't matter whether this is a medicine in primary care or whether this is a specialist medicine, it doesn't matter whether it's for small patient populations or for big populations," Schwan told a news conference in Paris.

"It is a matter of how much additional value you van generate, how much of an additional medical benefit you can generate for the individual patient and that is the criteria."

Asked if that meant he did not exclude a move into rare diseases, Schwan said: "We go where the science takes us - independent from the size or the patient population."

He declined to comment specifically on whether the company was interested in buying Alexion Pharmaceuticals or BioMarin .

(Reporting by Natalie Huet. Writing by Caroline Copley;Editing by Erica Billingham)

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/roche-ceo-not-rule-move-rare-diseases-084052280--finance.html
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