Hogan Lovells and Ropes & Gray have taken lead roles on Genzyme's $925m (£591m) sale of its genetic testing business, Genzyme Genetics, to Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LabCorp), reports The Am Law Daily.

Hogan Lovells advised LabCorp, with M&A partner Michael Silver taking the lead role alongside partners John Booher, William Intner and Joseph Krauss.

Longstanding Genzyme adviser Ropes & Gray advised the US company on the deal, with Boston M&A partner Chris Comeau leading the firm's team.

The Ropes team also included partners from a wide range of practice areas, including corporate, intellectual property, tax and benefits, labour and employment, debt finance, real estate, and antitrust.

Genzyme's testing unit brought in $371m (£237m) in revenue in 2009, and the company announced in May that it planned to sell off the business to increase shareholder value.

Plans to sell the remaining units are still in the works, and Genzyme says it is likely to use proceeds from those sales to finance the second half of a $2bn (£1.3bn) stock buyback plan it expects to complete in May 2011.

In late August Genzyme rejected a Sanofi-Aventis takeover proposal that valued the company at $18.5bn (£11.8bn). Ropes is also representing Genzyme on the bid, while Weil Gotshal & Manges and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz are advising Sanofi.

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