Swiss drugmaker Roche buys US blood testing company CMI for $220 mn

Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG today said that it has acquired US blood testing company Constitution Medical Investors (CMI), for $220 million, plus further contingent payments.

Without giving details, Basel-based Roche said that the contingent payments depended on the achieving certain milestones.

Founded by former Cytyc Corp executives, Patrick Sullivan and Daniel Levangie and private-equity firm Warburg Pincus, Boston, Massachusetts-based CMI is developing "Bloodhound" technology, which provides faster and more accurate diagnosis of blood-related diseases like anemia and leukemia.

The technology also increases efficiency by replacing several work stations in a laboratory with a single, compact unit.

"Patients will benefit from faster and more accurate diagnosis of blood diseases such as anemia and leukemia," said Roland Diggelmann, COO of Roche's Diagnostics business.

''We are very excited about the prospect of continuing our successful development as part of the Roche Group and bringing our technology to medical laboratories in the service of patients on a global scale'', said Patrick Sullivan, chairman and CEO of CMI.

Roche, the world's largest maker of cancer drugs, said that the acquisition would strengthen its expertise in hematology, which has an estimated global market size of more than $2 billion in 2011.