Roche Acquires RALS IT Connectivity Assets to Strengthen Presence in Point-of-Care Information Management

INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) and Medical Automation Systems, Inc. (MAS) announced today that they have signed an agreement under which Roche will acquire certain assets from MAS, a Charlottesville, Virginia-based privately held company. Under the terms of the agreement, Roche will acquire all the assets associated with the RALS point-of-care (POC) information technology (IT) connectivity system, as well as the names "Medical Automation Systems," "MAS" and "RALS." As part of the transaction, Roche expects to retain substantially all of the MAS employees.

"As a global leader in POC testing, Roche is committed to helping improve the quality of patient care by providing products that support clinical decision-making," said Jack Phillips, president and CEO of Roche Diagnostics Corporation North America. "Information management plays an increasingly critical role to meet the growing needs of our POC customers. With this acquisition, we will build on our strategy to deliver integrated testing solutions to our customers."

MAS is the market leader in POC information management with the RALS POC IT connectivity system, used in over 2,000 hospitals in the United States (USA). MAS pioneered the use of IT systems to improve the efficiency and regulatory compliance of hospital POC programs. Over the past decade, MAS has consistently brought innovative functionality to the market through collaborative development with its diagnostic partners.  

"MAS and Roche have had a close partnership for over ten years to co-market RALS for hospital blood glucose testing in the US" said Kurt Wassenaar, chief executive officer of MAS. "Roche is the ideal company to build upon the RALS system and deliver the next generation of information management systems. We're very pleased that Roche has decided to acquire these assets and is committed to ensuring the continued success and support of the RALS products and pipeline."

Roche Diagnostics develops and commercializes innovative solutions in the field of serum-based laboratory and POC testing, including CoaguChek® and ACCU-CHEK® brand products used by healthcare professionals to monitor coagulation and blood glucose at the point of care. They are currently used with the RALS information management systems in healthcare facilities across the US.

"The acquisition of RALS assets is a perfect fit with our strategy to deliver market-leading IT connectivity solutions. It further complements our IT product portfolio," stated Peter Finckh, Head of Global Platforms and Support Roche Diagnostics. "With this acquisition, we gain a very talented group of people with strong expertise and domain knowledge in POC IT, which we expect to be instrumental in delivering future generations of POC -IT solutions in collaboration with existing forces. It will further enable our mission to provide leading integrated testing solutions for our customers."

As part of Roche, RALS will remain a vendor-neutral IT connectivity solution and Roche will continue to expand the number of device interfaces available, enabling customers to streamline POC management in their hospitals.  

This transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. Upon closing, the legal entity currently known as MAS will be renamed.

About MAS

MAS, a leading provider of POC information management systems, is based in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.  In addition to the RALS system, MAS provides informatics solutions for critical care applications including inpatient IV insulin dosing software and ICU outcomes reporting software, as well as analytical services.  

About Roche

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world's largest biotech company with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS. Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes management. Roche's personalized healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. In 2009, Roche had over 80,000 employees worldwide and invested almost 10 billion Swiss francs in R&D. The Group posted sales of 49.1 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche has a majority stake in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information: www.roche.com or www.roche-diagnostics.us.

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SOURCE Roche Diagnostics Corporation