Pharma giant Roche is buying cancer tech startup Flatiron Health for $1.9 billion

Saskia Uppenkamp

Flatiron Health founders Zach Weinberg and Nat Turner.

• Pharma giant Roche is acquiring Flatiron Health for $1.9 billion.
• The New York-based cancer technology startup had previously been valued at $1.2 billion after raising $175 million from investors including Roche.
• Flatiron collects clinical data from cancer patients - such as what medications patients have taken and how they have responded to them.

Roche is buying Flatiron Health.

The pharmaceutical giant is paying $1.9 billion for the New York-based healthcare technology startup, which collects clinical data from cancer patients - such as what medications patients have taken and how they have responded to them.

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With that information, such as details on what medications patients have taken and how they have responded to them over the course of treatment, the hope is that healthcare professionals can have a better idea of how cancer drugs work in the "real world" in hospitals and cancer centers, as opposed to during clinical trials.

The company has partnered with the Food and Drug Administration over this data, which could one day influence how we treat cancer, and has also partnered with another Roche-backed cancer company Foundation Medicine.

"By coming together with Roche, Flatiron will have an accelerated ability to achieve our mission while continuing to operate independently with access to greater resources," CEO Nat Turner said in a blog post Thursday.

Flatiron, which was founded in 2012 by ex-Googlers Zach Weinberg and Turner, had raised more than $300 million from investors including GV and Roche.