Swiss pharmaceutical producer Roche has announced plans to buy privately held US gene-sequencing firm Genia Technologies for up to $350 million, securing access to a technology that should allow it to decipher human genes more quickly at a cheaper cost.

Under the deal, Genia's shareholders will receive $125 million in cash and up to $225 million in contingent payments depending on certain milestones.

Dan Zabrowski, head of Roche's sequencing unit, said the new technology had the potential to be more accurate, faster and less expensive than existing systems.

While most systems currently on the market make copies of DNA in order to generate enough coherent data to be read by the sequencing platform, he said Genia's technology, however, is based on the measurement of single DNA molecules and thus reduces the amount of errors and information.

Other sequencing platforms also rely on expensive optical sensors, but Genia uses cheap electronic semiconductors, the same as those used in cell phones and computers, to measure changes in electrical currents and identify DNA sequences.

Zabrowski said Roche is still on the lookout for external partnering opportunities in sequencing as well as developing its offering in-house.

In 2012, the Swiss company abandoned an attempt to buy gene-sequencing company Illumina for $6.7 billion after the US firm's shareholders held out for a higher price.