Swiss drug maker Roche will purchase U.S. cancer data company Flatiron Health, of which it already owns 12.6 percent, for $1.9 billion. Flatiron uses data on individual cancer cases to assist doctors in selecting the best treatment approaches for their patients.
Roche expects Flatiron's algorithms to improve its research and trials, as well as support its efforts to appropriately price cancer therapies. "It gives us better insights into the potential for our products," Jens Grueger, Roche's head of global pricing and market access, told Reuters in a 2016 interview, "but it also creates flexibility in how we can create value contracts in the future."
Flatiron will continue its operations as a separate entity once the deal is finalized in the first half of 2018.
Source: Reuters, February 15, 2018.