Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche says it has signed an agreement to purchase 100 per cent of Californian company, BioImagene.

The deal, worth $100 million (SFr105 million), is being carried out by a Roche subsidiary in the United States, Ventana Medical Systems Inc.

Roche said in a statement that BioImagene, “is an innovative leader in the field of digital pathology workflow and analysis”.

This technology enables the capturing of images, analysis of these images and the online sharing of patients’ tissue samples.

“As part of the personalised healthcare approach, pathologists are increasingly involved in generating information with high impact on treatment decisions,” said Daniel O’Day, COO Roche Diagnostics.

“The increasing complexity of new tests and technologies creates tremendous need for more sophisticated tools for tissue analysis and diagnosis,” O’Day added.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the coming weeks.

In the first half of this year, Roche reported that net profit climbed by 37 per cent to SFr5.6 billion ($5.3 billion).

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