Sales in the United States grew six percent in the first quarter, led by hepatitis C medicine Pegasys and cancer drug Rituxan — known as MabThera outside the U.S. and Canada. Sales in Western Europe fell four percent partly due to cutbacks in government-funded health programs.

Roche, which reports earnings only every six months, said group sales are expected to grow at low to mid-single-digit rates for the full year 2012.

Addressing the monthslong effort to take over California-based Illumina, which specializes in gene sequencing to analyze patients’ DNA, the Roche CEO indicated that a higher bid might still be possible.

Last month, Roche raised its offer to $51 cash per share from $44.50 per share, said by Illumina to be too low.

But Illumina’s board has since dismissed the higher offer too, urging shareholders not to sell their stock.

“We continue to believe that on the basis of the public information that has been available to us, our offer price of $51 per share is full, fair and extremely attractive by every conceivable financial metric,” said Schwan.

But he added that “if Illumina were to engage with us, we would consider any information supporting Illumina’s contention that our offer undervalues the company and its prospects.”

“Our goal has always been to enter into a negotiated transaction with Illumina and we firmly believe that our present offer is more than adequate to serve as a basis to begin that negotiation with Illumina,” said Schwan.

On Wednesday, Roche sent a letter to Illumina shareholders ahead of the company’s annual meeting in New York on April 18.

In the letter, Roche warned that Illumina’s financial success was far less certain than the California company’s board made out when it described itself as “the Apple of the genomics business.”

“Unlike at Apple stores, crowd control of eager buyers has not been a problem for Illumina and not even Illumina has projected any surge in revenues from its products in any specific foreseeable time period,” Roche said.

The region, which includes countries such as Mali, Chad and Niger has been hit hard by political instability and three droughts in less than 10 years. A U.N. appeal in December for $724 million to fund aid operations in the Sahel has elicited only half that amount so far, Guterres said.

UNICEF’s Executive Director Anthony Lake said at least 1 million — and possibly up to 1.5 million — children in the region face acute, severe malnutrition, putting them at risk of death from starvation or disease. Of these, about 330,000 children are in Niger, some 208,000 are in northern Nigeria, 178,000 are in Mali and 127,000 are in Chad. The figures, which also cover Burkina Faso, Mauritania, northern Senegal and northern Cameroon, don’t even include Sudan or South Sudan, where simmering conflicts are also stoking a humanitarian crisis.

“Someday there will be no excuse for looking back and saying why didn’t we do more quickly,” said Lake, who also shared the podium with the World Health Organization’s Director-General Margaret Chan.

Unless donor countries provide more funds, “the result will be many children will die and many families will suffer,” he said.

Chan said previous droughts in 2005 and 2010 meant many of the 15 million people affected by the crisis in the impoverished region have already sold off their reserves to survive, and aid needs to arrive by July at the latest.

“We are down to the last grain,” she said.

Glencore said it will buy all shares of Viterra for CA$16.25 per share in cash, a premium of about 50 percent over its trading value before the first word of a possible deal emerged March 8.

“The acquisition of Viterra is consistent with Glencore’s strategy of strengthening its position as one of the global leaders in grain and oilseeds markets,” said the company based in Baar, Switzerland.

Shares in Glencore were down 2.3 percent at 411 pence in afternoon trading in London.

Glencore is already one of the world’s biggest traders in raw materials, such as coal, cotton and corn. Last year, Glencore underwent a $10 billion IPO and it recently announced plans for a $90 billion merger with Anglo-Swiss mining group Xstrata PLC.

Canadian authorities will likely examine whether the takeover of Viterra is a “net benefit” to Canada. They have previously blocked Glencore rival BHP Billiton’s takeover of Potash Corp. because of concerns.

“It visualizes how we are changing the company,” Zetsche told reporters at the Geneva Motor Show.

Don’t expect the premium brand to dive into the mainstream just yet, though.

Mercedes also rolled out seven other new models that resemble more closely the company’s cool, conservative style.

These include the E-Class 300 BlueTEC, a business vehicle with diesel-hybrid propulsion, and the powerful SL 63 AMG.

All vehicles tout greater fuel efficiency, with the A-Class coming in at just under 99 grams of CO2 per kilometer. Zetsche said the company is aiming to get its fleet average down to 125 grams of CO2 per kilometer by 2015.

The Daimler CEO was upbeat about his company’s prospects in a challenging global market for automobiles.

Worldwide sales for the industry are expected to grow by about 4 percent, said Zetsche. “We very much believe that we will be better than that.”

The launches are a far cry from the days when small cars were spartan money-savers. While remaining easy on fuel consumption and light on emissions, these models are tooled with the latest safety features and touches of luxury to spruce up the compact and subcompact segments that comprise some 80 percent of the European market.

“Remember when smaller cars used to be cheap and cheerful? Now the consumers want the finest quality, the finest fuel efficiency, safety and design,” said Ford CEO Alan Mulally.

The problem for European mass market automakers is that consumer demand has shriveled under the pressure of the sovereign debt crisis: this year sales are expected shrink nearly 5 percent to 12.9 million units, according to the Center for Automotive Research.

The onset of the financial crisis in 2008 brought cash-for-clunker incentives that allowed drivers to get a bonus to buy a new car if they junked an old one. The incentives propped up the industry and delayed the inevitable reckoning with the fact that Europe has too many idle factories — something most European auto executives say shouldn’t be repeated.

“I don’t want incentives or financial assistance,” said Fiat and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne told reporters. “Fiat is financially solid and opposes any intervention to prop up the market.”

Fiat is among a long list of European automakers that is losing money in Europe that includes Peugeot-Citroen PSA, General Motors’ Adam Opel, and Renault. Fiat is aiming to build cars in Italy for export to the United States, where it has a 58.8 percent share in Chrysler through a nearly three-year-old alliance.

But it first needs to streamline its Italian factories, which are operating at just 60 percent capacity, according to figures from IHS automotive.

Idle production lines cut profits, and European automakers frequently have faced national resistance to any moves to close factories in response.

Stephen Odell, CEO of Ford of Europe, said European policymakers should stop getting in the way of plant closures as the industry seeks to balance supply with shrinking demand. Ford plants are running above 90 percent, thanks to closures in 2008 and 2009.

“I believe policymakers can stop making statements that they understand capacity should be taken out — but not in my country,” Odell said.

A fresh alliance inked last week between General Motors Peugeot is a sign that the industry is looking at ways to cut costs.

GM will take a 7 percent stake in Peugeot, Europe’s No. 2 automaker, in a deal that foresees a common platform by 2016 and synergies in the purchase of parts. The carmakers say it will save them $2 billion a year within five years, split roughly equally.

So far, the automakers have not discussed the possibility of job cuts and factory closures — moves expected by analysts.

The head of General Motors Europe, Karl-Friedrich Stracke, on Tuesday tried to dampen fears of mass job cuts in Europe, but didn’t rule them out.

“We need a sustainable setup. No company can keep making a loss,” Stracke said.

Meanwhile, Japanese car maker Nissan, which is in an alliance with French automaker Renault, announced it is investing 125 million pounds ($198 million) to build the new Invitation compact car at its British factory — a rare expansion of auto production in western Europe. Nissan said the Invitation will compete with Ford’s Fiesta and Volkswagen’s Polo models, and debut next year.