Roche announces acquisition of Kapa Biosystems

Roche has announced the acquisition of Kapa Biosystems, a provider of genomic tools to optimise enzymes for next-generation sequencing.

The privately-held company, which is headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts, offers a proprietary protein engineering technology that is highly customisable and allows for the generation and screening of large numbers of enzyme variants.

This allows tailored enzymes with improved performance for specific applications to be rapidly selected, expediting product development timelines and potentially improving the performance of the entire sequencing workflow.

Kapa's product range and employee skills will complement Roche's existing expertise and offerings in the field of next-generation sequencing, such as its portfolio of target enrichment products.

Roland Diggelmann, chief operating officer of Roche's diagnostics division, said: "This acquisition builds on Roche's commitment to develop a differentiated next-generation sequencing portfolio that will provide our customers with a complete genetic testing solution."

This follows the company's acquisition of life science technology company GeneWEAVE BioSciences earlier this month.