While insisting that the company remained committed to life science, pharmaceutical giant Roche is terminating a genome sequencing development project with IBM and also shutting down its Applied Science laboratory supply businesses.

The moves will affect 170 jobs, including 60 in Connecticut and 110 in Germany.

Roche and IBM (NYSE: IBM) agreed in July 2010 to try to make genome sequencing for medical purposes cheaper and more common.

The drugmaker said today it had ended its partnership with IBM for the development of a nanopore-based sequencing platform, due to high technical risks involved.

Roland Diggelmann, COO of Roche’s Diagnostics Division, said Roche isn’t getting out of the life science business.

“After thoroughly reviewing the activities of our Applied Science Business Area, we concluded that reorganising our life-science business will allow us to fully leverage the synergies these products have with our existing clinical diagnostic portfolio,” he said, according to Dow Jones News Service.

“Roche remains committed to the life-science business, and we will continue to serve our customers with our existing life science portfolio and experts in the field,” he said.

Roche is dissolving its Applied Science laboratory supply business because of cuts in research funding and price pressure.

Roche said two types of products the unit sells to scientists working with samples of genetic material will become part of its Molecular Diagnostics unit. Roche’s custom biotechnology portfolio will join the Professional Diagnostics business, while the company will create a unit to focus solely on gene sequencing.

However, that group won’t include IBM.

Roche may be reacting to its competitors Life Technologies Corp., acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., and Illumina Inc. having developed faster, cheaper ways to sequence genes, said Fabian Wenner, a Zurich-based analyst for Kepler Capital Markets. The Basel, Switzerland-based maker of drugs and medical technology abandoned a hostile takeover bid for Illumina over the U.S. sequencing company’s price demands.

The latest changes are a “defensive move, and the acquisition would have been defensive as well,” Wenner said in a telephone interview today. He has a buy rating on Roche’s shares.

IBM employs some 10,000 people across North Carolina.