Partnering with Diagnostics
Passionate about science - regardless of where it comes from
Roche was one of the first companies to recognise the importance of external innovation. Diagnostics has been partnering for more than 20 years with companies and research institutes worldwide. Since then, we have maintained a model that values external innovation as highly as our own internal development and established collaborations as the cornerstone of our R&D strategy.
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We at Roche Diagnostics Partnering are working on bringing external innovation together with our internal capabilities to turn ideas into diagnostic solutions.
The important thing to understand is that innovation doesn’t always happen internally within an organization — more often, innovation happens outside. This is where partnering comes in: to make connections with the external innovation environment, and bring those ideas together with our internal research and development teams.
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At Diagnostics Partnering, the way we are structured is that we cover the entire business development value chain. That means we are scouting for cutting-edge innovation. If we see something of interest — and if the partner is interested in working with us — we structure a deal.
This could be an in-licensing deal. We could also divest or out-license, or we might look at potential acquisitions. Sometimes, we reshape platform businesses.
Once we have a deal in place, we have a team that manages those deals and alliances to make
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sure we maximize the value we want to create from them.
With teams who are globally present, we cover what we call the "innovation value chain."
When you hear about an acquisition or a partnership that we announce — in fact, you're only seeing the tip of the iceberg. Behind the scenes, we’ve been screening around a thousand opportunities per year. And with a rigorous selection process, we home in on the technologies and companies that make sense for us to add to our portfolio at Roche Diagnostics.
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In Partnering, we identify technologies and trends very early. Together with experts from the business and R&D, we identify those most important to our strategy.
Through this, we have a real impact on our future product pipeline — acquiring technologies and building a comprehensive portfolio of solutions for our customers.
The rate of advancement in healthcare is really amazing — fantastic to see. But we, as a Roche organization, also need to constantly adapt our
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partnering approaches.
For example, we’ve developed a platform focused on open digital ecosystems — where any eligible innovator can join. Our collaborators gain as much as we do from working together.
By combining our joint capabilities, ideas, and expertise, our ambition is to improve patients' lives and enhance access to healthcare across the globe.
We’re looking for collaborators in areas like home testing, remote care, and monitoring.
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Through our partnerships, we aim to find solutions to some of the big questions of the future — such as cancer screening, home care, and clinical decision support.
At the end of the day, innovation is what happens outside — in universities, in startups. It's these collaborators, these partners, that we are looking to
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find.
Who we are
Roche Diagnostics is the market leader in the in vitro diagnostics business and provides the largest number of test results, empowering physicians and patients to make informed health decisions.
Roche is market leader in in-vitro diagnostics
tests conducted with Roche instruments in 2021
acquisitions since 2014
active in-licensing agreements
active out-licensing agreements
R&D investment in 2024 across the Roche Diagnostics Division
Diagnostics partnering areas of interest
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Where we are
Diagnostics Partnering offers speed, flexibility and accessibility to our partners. We have offices in Santa Clara, Tucson, Pleasanton, Boston, Basel (HQ), Rotkreuz, Penzberg and Shanghai.
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Our partnering process
The Roche partnering process can be encapsulated in four steps.
Defining our search
Identifying partners
Personalising deals
Building relationships
At each step we can modify and tailor the relationship to the specific needs of each potential partner and depending on what is best for the asset. We find that this flexible approach is welcomed by our partners, and in our experience delivers the best results.
We identify the “Wants” of Roche Diagnostics in regular reviews with our Business and R&D functions. The “Wants” cover short-term as well as mid- and long-term goals. We work closely with the potential partner to answer questions that focus on unmet medical needs, integration into existing platforms and assay menus, reimbursement, connectivity with our platforms, data sourcing, decision support and future trends with disruptive potential.
In order to be able to answer those questions during evaluation, we need to rely on data provided by the partner for each potential opportunity.
Once a new opportunity is identified, dedicated negotiation teams will work alongside our partners to complete the deal. We do not have any preconceived notions on the type of deals we should make. Our business development organisation can manage each transaction type and can easily change the structure to suit the needs of each of the opportunities and partners. We are flexible and consider a variety of deal types that range from licensing and acquisitions, to option deals and collaboration/partnering agreements, depending on what is best for all parties. If the opportunity permits, we work collaboratively with Pharma Partnering and Genentech Partnering to ensure the best outcome for the patients and the partners. Following execution of co-development projects we will have alliance management teams which work closely with the partner to set the development up for success.