Beckman Licenses Roche's Real Time PCR Patent Portfolio

Beckman Coulter, Inc. has announced that the company has acquired an In Vitro Diagnostics product license to all real time polymerase chain reaction patents and pending patent applications owned or controlled by Roche Diagnostics, a division of F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Basel, Switzerland.

Beckman Coulter will pay Roche a one time license fee of $27.5 million and will also pay royalties on sales of all licensed products.

"Real time PCR is the most widely accepted technology for the quantitative amplification and detection in molecular testing," said Scott Garrett, CEO.

"We recently announced that Beckman Coulter reached a settlement with Applera Corporation resulting in licenses to Beckman Coulter of the intellectual property needed for 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 laboratory processes, by bringing its unique capabilities in integrated system development to the area of molecular testing."

"Development of the products, including instruments and diagnostic kits, will begin immediately. Initial launch is expected in two to three years."