Swiss drugmaker Roche is buying Constitution Medical Investors (CMI), the US developer of a testing system for blood diseases like leukaemia, for an upfront $220 million, plus further contingent payments.

Roche, the world’s largest maker of cancer drugs, said yesterday the contingent payments depended on the achievement of certain milestones.

It said CMI would strengthen Roche’s position in the laboratory haematology-testing business, with an estimated global market size of more than $2 billion. CMI is developing “Bloodhound” technology which should save laboratory space by replacing several workstations with a single, compact unit.

Boston-based CMI was created and funded by private equity firm Warburg Pincus and former Cytyc Corporation executives Patrick Sullivan and Daniel Levangie. – (Reuters)