Roche has agreed to purchase the remaining 44% of Genentech it doesn’t own by raising its offer to US$95 a share to secure the deal. The merger was approved by the special committee set up by the Genentech board. Roche needed to seal this deal before trial results for the cancer drug, Avastin®, come out, and if positive, could have raised Genentech’s price even further. Genentech is Roche’s best hope for revenue growth as Roche also contends with its own patent expirations. The combined company will have revenues of US$17 B and become the seventh largest pharma company in the world. It ends a protracted battle that began eight months ago when Roche offered US$89 a share which was rejected by Genentech.