On September 24, 2008, Roche (SWX: ROG) announced that it had completed the acquisition of 100% of the issued and outstanding shares and warrants of ARIUS Research (TSX: ARI). On September 19 the Ontario Superior Court approved the Plan of Arrangement previously approved by the security holders and announced in a press release dated July 23, 2008. ARIUS is the developer of a proprietary antibody platform called FunctionFIRST(TM), 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. Roche, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, is one of the world's leading research-focused healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. ARIUS was advised in this transaction by a team from Fasken Martineau led by Louis-François Hogue and that included, among others, Frédéric Boucher, Gabriel Castiglio, Nicolas Morin and Judy Kremer (corporate/securities) and Gilles Carli (tax) in Montréal; and Anthony Baldanza (competition), Sam Rickett (litigation) and Aaron Atkinson (corporate) in Toronto.
