Roche Gains as Softbank Builds $5 Billion Stake

By Dhirendra Tripathi

Investing.com – Roche Holding (SIX:RO) stock was up 0.6% in Wednesday’s trading in Switzerland after Japan’s Softbank (OTC:SFTBY) disclosed that it had built a stake worth $5 billion in the drugmaker.

The news cleared up a mystery over what was behind the stock's 25% rally to record highs since May.

Softbank (T:9984) stock closed 1% lower today in Japan.

Bloomberg first reported the deal by SB Northstar, a Softbank unit that its founder Masayoshi Son had said would be scaled back after its name figured in some questionable deals.

Roche doesn’t make a COVID vaccine but its tests for the infection have yielded results for its topline that grew 8% in the first half of the financial year. The diagnostic business grew 51%.

The company has a few products targeted at the opportunity thrown up by COVID.

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration expanded the emergency use of antibody cocktail REGEN-COV as a prophylaxis in people exposed to COVID patients. Roche and Regeneron (NASDAQ:REGN) are collaborating on the drug.

Similarly, actemra, Roche’s drug to treat rheumatoid arthritis, has been repurposed to treat COVID patients.

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