Serono shares slide on report it has no suitor

Shares of Serono SA, Europe's largest biotechnology company, dropped the most in more than three years after The Wall Street Journal said Serono failed to attract any offers.

Serono may have to lower the asking price of about $15 billion in cash after a deadline passed Friday without any offers, the Journal reported yesterday. The stock fell $79.30, or 9.3 percent, to $773.25 in Zurich, giving the company a market value of $11.8 billion. A Serono spokeswoman, Benedicte Bogh, declined to comment.

Serono said Nov. 8 that it hired Goldman Sachs Group to explore ''alternatives," without being more specific. The shares had gained about 25 percent on speculation drug makers including Novartis AG, Pfizer Inc., and GlaxoSmithKline PLC may be interested in buying Geneva-based Serono to get the multiple sclerosis treatment Rebif, the company's biggest-selling product.

''We are skeptical about Serono and its future growth potential," said Daniele Scilingo, who has shares of Swiss drug makers, including Novartis, among $1 billion in assets he helps manage at Pictet & Cie. He doesn't hold Serono stock.

''A drug maker would only make an acquisition to get growth drivers and a pipeline, and Rebif is threatened from every side," he said.

The company's fertility business is facing price pressure from Akzo Nobel NV's Organon unit, while oral formulations for multiple sclerosis may erode Rebif sales, analysts have said.

Rebif, whose sales rose 20 percent to $316 million in the third quarter, is targeted to be the worldwide leader next year. Pfizer helps market Rebif in the United States.