Chugai and Roche: just good friends?

The denial from Chugai Pharmaceutical could hardly have been more emphatic.

No, Japan’s number three drugmaker by market capitalisation had nothing to do with news reports that Roche, its 59.89 per cent shareholder, was weighing a buyout of minorities, it announced on Saturday. Then it went on: “Chugai is in no way in the process of reviewing any plan to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Roche, nor discussing with Roche about such a transaction.”