Roche has bought a US software firm to gain access to its cloud-based big data platform for laboratory IT systems.

California-based Viewics will become an integral part of the Swiss pharma company, allowing it to bolster existing digital capabilities within its diagnostics operations.

Roland Diggelmann, CEO Roche Diagnostics, said: “We are excited that Viewics, will be joining the Roche Group, as it will help us to support our customers around the world in improving their lab performance and processes.

“The Viewics solution offers our customers insights at their fingertips, uncovering potential value and profitability drivers in lab operations, and indicators to improve overall quality of care”.

Viewics’ software allows big data from a variety of IT systems in the laboratory and beyond to be integrated in order to provide insights into areas such as operations and finances.

Dhiren Bhatia, founder and president of Viewics, said: “We founded Viewics with the belief that unlocking the value of data would drive immense value for our customers. With Roche’s expertise and strong alignment within our teams, we are excited to embark on this next phase of Viewics’ journey and jointly deliver on this mission.”

The deal will see Roche acquire all the shares of the privately-held company, which was founded in 2010 in Sunnyvale, California and has a subsidiary in Pune, India.

The firm’s CEO Keith Laughman said its mission was to “provide unprecedented access to disparate healthcare data to surface actionable insights and empower data-driven decision-making”.

He added: “The Viewics platform generates insights that can inform real-time decisions about costs, laboratory performance, and many other areas affecting today’s modern healthcare organisations. We are looking forward to working with our Roche colleagues in helping to support the lab’s critical role in healthcare delivery.”

The deal is Roche’s second major digital health acquisition of the year, following its purchase of the smartphone-based diabetes management platform mySugr. The Austrian firm’s apps and services offer a combination of diabetes coaching, therapy management, unlimited test-strips and automated data tracking.

In addition to that deal, 2017 also saw Roche prove the worth of smartphone monitoring in its recent FLOODLIGHT multiple sclerosis clinical trial programme and the company joined the likes of Apple and Samsung in an FDA digital health pilot.

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