Roche announced that it has completed the acquisition of cent per cent of the issued and outstanding shares and warrants of Arius Research. On September 19th, the Ontario Superior Court, Canada, approved the plan of arrangement previously approved by the security holders and announced in a press release dated 23 July 2008. All other conditions of closing have been satisfied.

Arius is the developer of a proprietary antibody platform called FunctionFIRST, which rapidly identifies and selects antibodies based on their functional ability to affect disease before progressing into clinical development. This antibody generation engine has enabled Arius to develop a pipeline of more than 500 antibody drug candidates. The FunctionFIRST technology platform will allow Roche to further strengthen its developmental portfolio, initially within the areas of oncology and inflammatory diseases where this new technique offers potentially broad therapeutic applications.