Roche announced that it has signed an agreement under which Ventana Medical Systems Inc., a member of the Roche Group, will acquire 100 per cent of BioImagene, Inc., a privately held company based in Sunnyvale, California. The purchase price is approximately 100 million US dollars on a debt-free basis. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the coming weeks.

BioImagene is an innovative leader in the field of digital pathology workflow and analysis. Digital pathology is a suite of dynamic, image-based technologies that enable image capture, information management, image analysis and virtual sharing of patients' tissue samples on glass slides.

"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. BioImagene products will complement and strengthen our current offering in image analysis and information management."

"With its leadership position in pathology and its global reach, Ventana is the ideal partner for BioImagene," commented Ajit Singh, CEO of BioImagene, Inc. "Ventana is already a leader in image analysis for breast cancer applications and has a wide range of market-leading diagnostics products used in hospitals and laboratories worldwide. In turn, BioImagene brings to Ventana additional capabilities for scanning and analysing tissue that are not possible in the glass-slide world."

BioImagene's products create high-resolution, whole-slide digital images from glass microscope slides. They also provide the software to view, analyze and manage tissue images using a computer, taking pathology beyond traditional microscope applications. In addition, their products improve workflow efficiency in image archiving and retrieval, remote case review, and turnaround time.

"Through this acquisition, Ventana is uniquely positioned to improve laboratory efficiency and help pathologists improve patient care," said Hany Massarany, president of Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. "Our VIAS Image Analysis System was the first entry into the digital pathology market and is now the leading system for automated image analysis in breast cancer. With BioImagene's current and future products we will be able to deliver an end-to-end solution from automated staining to comprehensive patient reports."

BioImagene is a leading provider of innovative and scalable digital pathology solutions. The company's total digital pathology solution is comprised of the Virtuoso digital pathology application software, iScan family of automated digital slide scanners, and a rich menu of Companion Algorithms.

Ventana develops, manufactures, and markets instrument/reagent systems that automate tissue preparation and slide staining in clinical histology and drug discovery laboratories worldwide.

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world's largest biotech company with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS.