ZURUCH: Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG said it would buy the rest of US cancer data company Flatiron Health for $1.9 billion to speed development of cancer medicines and support its efforts to price them based on how well they work. Privately held Flatiron, backed by Alphabet Inc, taps into data on individual cancer cases to help doctors select promising approaches for their patients.
It also stores billing data, doctors’ notes and related information. Roche currently owns 12.6 per cent of Flatiron.
In 2016, Roche led a $175 million investment into Flatiron, in part to help the Swiss company harness the deluge of still-underutilised data collected from cancer patients with the New York City-based company’s products. Roche has said Flatiron algorithms will improve not only its research and trials, but also buttress its arguments during head-to-head price talks with payers as new combinations of its expensive therapies hit the market. — Reuters
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