Roche hunting for tech startups to boost research

Bloomberg

For Roche Holding AG, collaborating with tech startups is no longer enough. Now it wants to own them. The Swiss oncology giant bought three tech companies and joined forces with another in the past eight months as it seeks to take advantage of a flood of data from patients and clinical studies. The most recent deal, a $1.9 billion takeover of Flatiron Health Inc., gives it a platform to comb through medical records, gene sequences and insurance claims to find out what cancer therapies work.
“Real-world data — and all the associated analytical tools, like machine learning — this is a field which will get very important for research and development” and eventually for reimbursement, Roche Chief Executive Officer Severin Schwan said in an interview late last year.
“We have made very conscious
decisions to explore into this direction in a more strategic way, not just to stumble into it.”
Drugmakers and the insurers that decide whether therapies will be reimbursed are looking for evidence to guide both the development of new products and the use of treatments after they’re approved. Roche’s Flatiron deal is a harbinger of more deals to come, especially in the demanding field of oncology, said Pierre Corby, a Paris-based analyst for Oddo & Cie.
“It’s more and more complicated in the space of oncology to find the right treatment for the right person,” Corby said by telephone. “Even very smart oncologists have difficulties right now finding the right treatments and the right doses.” Roche rose 0.7 percent to 225.05 Swiss francs at 4:06 p.m. in Zurich. The Flatiron deal is expected to close in the first half of this year.