Roche Acquires Genia Technologies, Strengthens Next Generation Sequencing Pipeline

(Mountain View, CA, USA), a privately held company, which is developing a single-molecule, semiconductor based DNA sequencing platform using nanopore technology.

Roche will pay Genia’s shareholders USD 125 million in cash. In addition to this payment from Roche, Genia’s shareholders may receive up to USD 225 million in contingent payments depending on the achievement of certain milestones. Genia’s proprietary technology is expected to reduce the price of sequencing while increasing speed and sensitivity.

Genia is developing a potentially disruptive next generation sequencing technology with integrated circuits enabling massively parallel, single-molecule DNA sequencing. Its versatile nanopore-based platform allows for single molecule, electrical real-time analysis without the need for complicated optics, labels, amplification, or fluidics. The heart of Genia’s technology is a semiconductor integrated circuit where an automated assembly of nanopores in a lipid bilayer allows for the measurement of single molecules. Genia’s sensor technology and its proprietary NanoTag chemistry enables accurate base calls, overcoming many of the limitations faced by other nanopore-based sequencing efforts.

Roland Diggelmann, COO of Roche Diagnostics commented on the purchase, “The acquisition of Genia is a further step for Roche to introduce a potentially disruptive technology to the market. The addition of Genia’s single molecule semiconductor DNA sequencing platform using nanopore technology strengthens our next generation sequencing pipeline.”

Roche is a large biotech company, with differentiated medicines in oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology, and neuroscience. Roche is also a world leader in diabetes management. Roche’s personalized healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostics that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. Founded in 1896, Roche has been making important contributions to global health for more than a century.

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