Roche Licenses PCR Portfolio to Beckman Coulter

Roche Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) has licensed all real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) patents and pending patent applications to Beckman Coulter (Fullerton, CA, USA). Beckman Coulter will pay Roche a one-time fee of U.S. $27.5 million and will pay royalties on sales of all licensed products.

Beckman Coulter is a manufacturer of biomedical testing instrument systems, tests, and systems that simplify laboratory processes. The company's products are used for laboratory diagnostics, point-of-care testing, and clinical trials.

"Real time PCR is the most widely accepted technology for quantitative amplification and detection in molecular testing,” said Scott Garret, CEO of Beckman Coulter. "We recently announced that Beckman Coulter reached a settlement with Applera Corporation resulting in licenses to Beckman Coulter of the intellectual property needed for the development of real time PCR instrumentation for diagnostics. This additional license from Roche gives our company the intellectual property required to meet the molecular testing needs of routine labs for an automated, fully integrated system. Beckman Coulter will continue to build on its strength of simplifying and automating processes by bringing its unique capabilities in integrated system development to the area of molecular testing. Development of products, including instruments and diagnostic kits, will begin immediately. Initial launch is expected in two to three years.”



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