Seeking Alpha: Roche Loses A Little Luster Before Year-End

Even good drug companies have to cope with the fact that drug development is difficult and negative outcomes are more likely than clinical successes. Roche (OTCQX:RHHBY) has had plenty of wins over the year, and the company's presentations at September's ESMO meetings included some fantastic results, but the news on Friday was decidedly more negative for Roche as it reported surprisingly disappointing data from its MARIANNE front-line breast cancer study and saw yet another clinical failure in its non-oncology pipeline.

The disappointment of the MARIANNE study is tempered by the company's robust portfolio and deep immuno-oncology pipeline. Even so, the setback to Kadcyla takes some upside out of the story and the shares appear more or less fully valued at this point in time. I believe that the quality of Roche makes holding it still a worthwhile proposition, but investors with new funds to deploy should look around the space a bit first.

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Roche Loses A Little Luster Before Year-End