ZURICH (Thomson Financial) - Roche Holding AG is confident of its future growth prospects given its healthy product portfolio and pipeline, which will help offset slowing Tamiflu sales, said the company's head of pharma William Burns.

'The reason why we are confident is the rich number of products with lots of growth potential left,' Burns told Thomson Financial News in an interview.

'Investors have always recognized that Tamiflu was a super special situation, not a long-term business model,' he explained.

Sales of the drug, which is the World Health Organization's 'primary recommended antiviral of choice' in managing patients infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus, were boosted by government stockpiling last year but this trend is now coming to an end.

Nevertheless, Roche still expects full year sales of Tamiflu to reach 'closer' to 1.6 bln sfr. The company said at the time of its first half results that full year sales of the drug would be 1.4 bln.

Commenting on Roche's 75 usd per share bid for Ventana Medical Systems Inc, which has repeatedly been rejected by the US firm's management, Roche CEO-designate Severin Schwan said in the same interview that the door for negotiations remains open and that Roche is happy to enter talks at any time.

However, he reiterated that Roche has no intention of raising the price.

andrew.ge.thompson@thomson.com

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