ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG confirmed its commitment to a $43.7 billion bid for Genentech Inc as it reported a 2 percent fall in nine-month sales to 33.3 billion Swiss francs ($29.26 billion).
Nine-month sales were hit by the loss of pandemic Tamiflu sales and were just behind forecasts.
The world's largest maker of cancer drugs, which offered to buy out U.S. biotech partner Genentech Inc in July, on Tuesday confirmed its full-year forecast.
"Roche reaffirms commitment to Genentech offer," Roche said in a statement, adding it still wants a "negotiated agreement."
Shares of big drugmakers have to some extent benefited from the financial crisis thanks to their relatively secure earnings and dividends.
Roche trades at nearly 14 times forecast 2009 earnings, a premium to other large-cap pharma groups like GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Sanofi-Aventis SA and local Swiss rival Novartis AG because of its limited competitive exposure and strength in cancer drugs.
It had been expected to post nine-month sales of 33.4 billion francs, according to a Reuters poll of 16 analysts.
(Reporting by Sam Cage)
