Roche announces that it will acquire Genia Technologies Inc., a company developing a single-molecule, semiconductor based, DNA sequencing platform using nanopore technology. Under the terms of the agreement, Roche will pay Genia’s shareholders $125 million in cash. In addition to this payment from Roche, Genia’s shareholders may receive up to $225 million in contingent payments depending on the achievement of certain milestones.
“The acquisition of Genia is a further step for Roche to introduce a potentially disruptive technology to the market,” says Roland Diggelmann, COO of Roche Diagnostics. “The addition of Genia’s single molecule semiconductor DNA sequencing platform using nanopore technology strengthens our next generation sequencing pipeline.”
“We are very excited about continuing our successful development as part of the Roche Group and bringing our technology to researchers on a global scale,” says Stefan Roever, CEO of Genia.
Once the transaction is complete, Genia will be integrated into Roche Sequencing Unit and will continue to focus on the development of this system. Genia Technologies is located in Mountain View, Calif.
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a biotech company offering medicines used in oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology, and neuroscience. The company also deals with in vitro diagnostics and tissue-based cancer diagnostics, as well as diabetes management.
Release Date: June 2, 2014
Source: Roche