Roche is buying Flatiron Health, the company has announced, adding it will acquire all shares of Flatiron Health, following on from an existing equity stake of 12.6 percent.
The New York City-based Flatiron Health 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, the company has created a technology platform designed to learn from the experience of every patient.
“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,” Daniel O’Day, CEO Roche Pharmaceuticals, said in a statement. “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.”
Flatiron Health has worked with industry leaders and regulators to develop new approaches for how real-world evidence may be used in regulatory decision making, including the design and validation of novel endpoints. Additionally, 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,” Nat Turner, Flatiron Health Co-Founder and CEO, said in a statement. “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.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Roche will make a payment of $1.9 billion to Flatiron Health on a fully diluted basis, subject to certain adjustments. The closing of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, and is expected during the first half of 2018.
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.