	squibb sqb said not interested in buying cetus robert fildes president and chief executive of cetus corp ctus o told reuters that squibb corp is not interested in buying cetus earlier the companies said squibb would buy from cetus a five pct equity postion in cetus for about mln dlrs this is not an attempt by squibb to become a major majority holder in cetus fildes told reuters in an interview squibb has not approached us with any indication that they want to uire us and we wouldn t be interested in that kind of arrangement said fildes squibb could not be reached to comment on the late comments by fildes squibb is cetus first pharmaceutical partner and the only one to own an equity position in cetus eastman kodak co ek and w r grace wr both have joint ventures with cetus but neither owns an equity position in the company said fildes cetus has a venture with kodak to develp diagnostic products and with grace to develop agricultural products earlier squibb and cetus announced in a joint statement an agreement in principle to form a joint venture to develop new biotechnology products in several fields as part of the deal squibb will license several of cetus anticancer agents including interleukin in development squibb will sell the drugs only in japan and other markets but not in north american and western europe we wouldn t have done this deal had it not been understood that cetus wants to build its own fully integrated business in north america and europe said fildes he said squibb was the good partner because squibb has a major joint venture in japan and has sales capabilities of its own in that market fildes said cetus has shunned licensing arrangements with pharmaceutical companies because it wanted to build its own business many large corporations have invested in small biotech firms but squibb s investment in cetus is the first it has made in biotechnology fildes said that was attractive to cetus because it wanted a partner that didn t have a relationship with a large number of other biotechnology companies fildes said his strategy was to have partners in non drug areas like diagnostics and agriculture but to keep the biggest developments in anticancer drugs to ourselves fildes said the partnership with squibb would be used to broaden the company s reach in such big money making areas as the cardiovascular anti infective and the anti inflammatory markets squibb is also investming mln dlrs in cetus research over the next five years squibb is putting up over mln dlrs in research and development to make it happen while the equity position part of the package is simply to demonstrate the seriousness of this partnership said fildes reuter 
