Roche Buys Shares In Tender Offer For Anadys Pharmaceuticals

Roche Holding AG (ROG.VX) Wednesday said its subsidiary Bryce Acquisition Corporation accepted for payment all shares tendered pursuant to its offer for all outstanding shares of Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ANDS) at $3.70 per share in cash.

MAIN FACTS:

- As of the expiration of the tender offer, a total of approximately 54,532,568 shares of Anadys common stock were tendered and not withdrawn (including approximately 2,345,764 shares tendered by delivery of notices of guaranteed delivery), representing approximately 94% of Anadys's outstanding shares.

- Roche intends to complete the acquisition of Anadys through a short-form merger without a vote or meeting of Anadys's shareholders.

- In the merger, all shares of Anadys not owned by Anadys, Roche or their respective wholly owned subsidiaries (other than shares as to which appraisal rights are validly exercised) will be converted into the right to receive the same cash consideration per share as was paid in the tender offer.

-Zurich Bureau, Dow Jones Newswires, [phone]; [e-mail]