Following its announcement of intending a full takeover of Chiron Vaccines, Swiss pharma giant Novartis considers acquiring another Swiss biotech company, Berna Biotech AG, to complement its product range and geographic coverage.

In an effort to outbid Dutch start-up Crucell NV which also earlier announced an offer to acquire Berna through an all-share exchange, Novartis plans to offer to pay up in cash.

Switzerland's SonntagsZeitung said that Novartis could offer as much as 16 francs per share for the vaccine maker.

Novartis's offer would be in cash, the newspaper said, providing an advantage over Crucell's all-share offer, the value of which depends on the price of shares in the Dutch firm.

Shares in Crucell have since fallen, however, and the bid is now worth closer to 14 francs per Berna share, giving a total value for the firm of 530 million francs.

Asidef rom Chiron and Berna, Novartis is also one of the pharma giants who expressed interest in taking over third biggest biotech company, Serono.

Sources: Novartis Media Release, Reuters