Roche to Acquire Flatiron Health for $1.9B
Roche and Flatiron Health announced that the two partners have signed a definitive agreement under which Roche will acquire all shares of Flatiron Health, following on from an existing equity stake of 12.6%. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2018.
Flatiron Health, a privately held healthcare technology and services company headquartered in New York City, US, is a market leader in oncology-specific electronic health record (EHR) software, as well as the curation and development of real-world evidence for cancer research. With its large network of community oncology practices and academic medical centers across the US, Flatiron Health has created a technology platform designed to learn from the experience of every patient.
“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” – Daniel O’Day, CEO Roche Pharmaceuticals.
Flatiron Health has worked with industry leaders and regulators to develop new standards for how real-world evidence is used in regulatory decision making, including the design and validation of novel endpoints. By working closely with its network of community practices and academic medical centers, Flatiron has also developed a suite of software products that uniquely positions the company to advance the use of real-world evidence at the point of care.
“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” – Nat Turner, Flatiron Health cofounder and CEO.
Under the terms of the agreement, Roche will make a payment of $1.9B to Flatiron Health on a fully diluted basis, subject to certain adjustments. The closing of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. The parties expect that following the closing, Flatiron Health will continue its current business model, network of partnerships and overall objectives. The integrity of segregated patient protected health information will be preserved, as will dedicated sales and marketing, provider-facing and life science business activities.
