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Roche Confirms Commencement of Due Diligence with Ventana

Wednesday, November 14, 2007 General News
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BASEL, Switzerland, Nov. 13 Roche (SWX: ROG.VX;RO.S) confirmed today that it has entered into a confidentiality agreementwith Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: VMSI) and that it will commencedue diligence. Roche cautioned that there can be no assurance that anagreement with respect to the acquisition of Ventana will be reached.
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On June 27, 2007, Roche commenced a tender offer to acquire all of theoutstanding common shares of Ventana for $75.00 per share in cash. This pricerepresents a 44% premium to Ventana's close of $51.95 on June 22, 2007 (thelast trading day prior to the announcement of Roche's offer) and a 55% premiumto its three-month average as of the same date of $48.30. The tender offerwill expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time on Thursday, January 17, 2008,unless further extended.
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Greenhill & Co. and Citi are acting as financial advisors to Roche andDavis Polk & Wardwell is acting as legal counsel.

About Roche

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world's leadingresearch-focused healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals anddiagnostics. As the world's biggest biotech company and an innovator ofproducts and services for the early detection, prevention, diagnosis andtreatment of diseases, the Group contributes on a broad range of fronts toimproving people's health and quality of life. Roche is the world leader inin-vitro diagnostics and drugs for cancer and transplantation, a market leaderin virology and active in other major therapeutic areas such as autoimmunediseases, inflammation, metabolic disorders and diseases of the centralnervous system. In 2006 sales by the Pharmaceuticals Division totaled 33.3billion Swiss francs, and the Diagnostics Division posted sales of 8.7 billionSwiss francs. Roche has R&D agreements and strategic alliances with numerouspartners, including majority ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai, andinvests approximately 7 billion Swiss francs a year in R&D. Worldwide, theGroup employs about 75,000 people.

Roche's Diagnostics Division offers a uniquely broad product portfolio andsupplies a wide array of innovative testing products and services toresearchers, physicians, patients, hospitals and laboratories world-wide.

Roche commenced operations in the U.S. over 100 years ago and theseoperations include research and development centers that conduct leading-edgework in advancing disease detection and treatment. Our diagnostics andpharmaceuticals businesses in the U.S. employ more than 20,000 people andgenerate approximately $10 billion in sales (including Genentech), accountingfor about 40% of the Roche Group's global annual revenues.

Further information

- All documents on the offer to Ventana's shareholders:www.roche.com/info070625

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS CERTAIN FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS. THESEFORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS MAY BE IDENTIFIED BY WORDS SUCH AS 'BELIEVES','EXPECTS', 'ANTICIPATES', 'PROJECTS', 'INTENDS', 'SHOULD', 'SEEKS','ESTIMATES', 'FUTURE' OR SIMILAR EXPRESSIONS OR BY DISCUSSION OF, AMONG OTHERTHINGS, STRATEGY, GOALS, PLANS OR INTENTIONS. VARIOUS FACTORS MAY CAUSE ACTUALRESULTS TO DIFFER MATERIALLY IN THE FUTURE FROM THOSE REFLECTED IN FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS CONTAINED IN THIS DOCUMENT, AMONG OTHERS: (1) PRICING ANDPRODUCT INITIATIVES OF COMPETITORS; (2) LEGISLATIVE AND REGULATORYDEVELOPMENTS AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS; (3) DELAY OR INABILITY IN OBTAININGREGULATORY APPROVALS OR BRINGING PRODUCTS TO MARKET; (4) FLUCTUATIONS INCURRENCY EXCHANGE RATES AND GENERAL FINANCIAL MARKET CONDITIONS; (5)UNCERTAINTIES IN THE DISCOVERY, DEVELOPMENT OR MARKETING OF NEW PRODUCTS ORNEW USES OF EXISTING PRODUCTS, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION NEGATIVE RESULTSOF CLINICAL TRIALS OR RESEARCH PROJECTS, UNEXPECTED SIDE-EFFECTS OF PIPELINEOR MARKETED PRODUCTS; (
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