Roche goes ona buying spree

Roche is acquiring two companies in diagnostics and one in antibodies. The Swiss drugmaker will acquire BioVeris, a maker of health care diagnostics, for about $600 million. Roche says the purchase will add electrochemiluminescence technology and allow it to "fully exploit the entire immunochemistry market." Roche is buying CuraGen's 454 Life Sciences unit, a developer of sequencing technology, for about $160 million. Roche Diagnostics has been distributing 454 Life Sciences' Genome Sequencer systems and associated reagents. And Roche has purchased privately held Therapeutic Human Polyclonals for $56.5 million. Roche says THP has developed a unique transgenic mammalian platform to create human antibodies.