Roche Buys Flatiron Health for Healthcare Analytics

Biotech company Roche, which specializes in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics, announced it will acquire Flatiron Health. Flatiron is a provider of oncology-specific electronic health record software and data collection for cancer research. It has created a healthcare analytics platform designed to learn from every patient experience.

Nat Turner, Flatiron Health Co-Founder and CEO said, “Roche has been a tremendous partner to us over the past two years and shares our vision for building a learning healthcare platform in oncology ultimately designed to improve the lives of cancer patients. This important milestone will allow us to increase our investments in our provider-facing technology and services platform, as well as our evidence-generation platform, which will remain available to the entire healthcare industry.”

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Under the terms of the agreement, Roche will pay $1.9 billion to acquire Flatiron. The two companies will continue to operate as separate entities and Flatiron’s existing research and partnerships will not be affected. The deal is subject to regulatory approval and expects to close by the end of Q1 2018.

Daniel O’Day, CEO Roche Pharmaceuticals said, “This is an important step in our personalized healthcare strategy for Roche, as we believe that regulatory-grade real-world evidence is a key ingredient to accelerate the development of, and access to, new cancer treatments. As a leading technology company in oncology, Flatiron Health is best positioned to provide the technology and data analytics infrastructure needed not only for Roche, but for oncology research and development efforts across the entire industry. A key principle of this is to preserve Flatiron’s autonomy and their ability to continue providing their services to all existing and future partners.”

Both companies will remain committed to improving the lives of cancer patients through healthcare analytics and big data.