The new three-year collaboration between Roche Diagnostics (a division of Roche ) and start-up company Epigenomics AG [See Deal] is striking both because of its value—as an alliance one of the highest-valued deals signed in recent years--and because of the faith it places in DNA methylation technology, which has long been under investigation and is now in the spotlight. (See "Epigenomics GMBH," START-UP, February 2000 Also see "Epigenomics GMBH" - Medtech Insight, 1 February, 2000..)
For many small diagnostics companies, the deal is an enviable model of the kind they would like to achieve with...