GE Healthcare to acquire cancer diagnostics firm Clarient for $560 million

GE Healthcare, a manufacturer of diagnostic imaging products today said that it would buy Clarient Inc, in a deal that value the Alisa Viejo, California-based molecular diagnostics company at about $580 million.

Clarient, which had 2009 sales $92 million, combines innovative diagnostic technologies with world class pathology expertise to assess and characterise cancer.

Clarient provides pathologists and oncologists with access to key diagnostic tests that shed light on the complex nature of various cancers.

Clarient is focused on developing novel, proprietary diagnostic markers and tests for the profiling of breast, prostate, lung, colon and blood-based cancers, to help clinicians make informed decisions on how best to treat their patients.

Given the increasing importance of more targetted cancer diagnostics, Clarient is well positioned to bring differentiated, added-value molecular diagnostic products and services to market.

Clarient's technologies, combined with GE Healthcare's strengths in diagnostic imaging, are expected to accelerate the development of new integrated tools for the diagnosis and characterisation of cancer.