Roche looks at raising bid for Illumina Roche, the Swiss drug company, said on Friday it might consider raising its bid to acquire Illumina, the US genetic sequencing company that has rebuffed its previous takeover offers. Severin Schwan, Roche chief executive, said the group would "remain willing to consider additional value if given the opportunity to enter discussions and perform due diligence." IN Pharmaceuticals The statement came in response to a report from Institutional Shareholder Services on Friday that said Roche's current bid of $51 a share, or $6.7bn, "does not provide meaningful compensation for the potentially enormous long-term opportunity shareholders would forgo by selling at this point." Roche in January made an unsolicited $5.7bn bid for Illumina that was rejected as insufficient. On Monday Roche stepped up its offer for Illumina with a bid that it said represented an 88 per cent premium above Illumina's closing stock price on December 21 2011. Illumina quickly rejected the offer, calling it "opportunistic" and not reflective of its strength or future prospects. ISS, a proxy advisory group, agreed with Illumina, pointing to the "vast" potential for genetic sequencing and the lack of competition. It also said Illumina should be concerned about "unnecessary truncation of value by selling the company at too low a valuation of its future." Roche has put forward candidates for Illumina's board ahead of its April 18 shareholder meeting. The Swiss suitor said it was disappointed in the ISS recommendation that Illumina shareholders vote against its board nominees, and challenged the group's assertion that the bid was not a fair starting point for negotiations.