Roche strengthens oncology translational research pipeline by acquiring CAPP Medical
CAPP Medical has technology that detects circulating cancer DNA from blood
Swiss drugmaker Roche has acquired CAPP Medical, a privately held genomics research company located in Palo Alto, CA, US, for an undisclosed sum.
With the deal, Roche aims to advance the development of technology for cancer screening and monitoring through the detection of circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) in blood.
CAPP Medical's novel technology isolates and quantifies small amounts of ctDNA through a simple blood test, which has the potential to be used for cancer therapy selection and monitoring tumour response and resistance to therapy.
Roland Diggelmann, COO of Roche Diagnostics, said: 'Roche believes focused and high-quality next generation sequencing (NGS) assays using simple blood draws have the potential to significantly advance the time of cancer diagnosis and change routine cancer diagnostic monitoring and may be highly cost effective compared with today's current standard of using PET and CT imaging to monitor tumour progression.
'CAPP Medical's technology for detecting the circulating cancer DNA from blood has the potential to further strengthen Roche's diagnostic offerings for patients and will provide valuable clinical trial support for pharma oncology pipelines.'
