Pharmaceuticals Roche expands cell therapy portfolio with Poseida acquisition

Roche is strengthening its research pipeline with the acquisition of the US company Poseida Therapeutics. For a total of around 1.5 billion US dollars, the Basel-based company is bringing an expert in the field of personalized CAR-T cell therapies on board.

According to a Roche press release on Tuesday, Poseida's research and development portfolio comprises preclinical and clinical standard CAR-T therapies in various therapeutic areas, including blood cancer, tumors and autoimmune diseases, as well as production capacities and technology platforms.

The acquisition builds on the existing partnership between Roche and Poseida, which was entered into in 2022 under a collaboration and license agreement and focused on the development of ready-to-use CAR-T cell therapies for the treatment of patients with blood cancer.

The aim is now to develop the next generation of commercially available CAR-T cell therapies with increased efficacy and favorable safety at a scale that could potentially reach more patients and enable broad commercial use.

According to a press release issued on Tuesday, Roche expects to complete the transaction in the first quarter of 2025. Specifically, the Basel-based company is offering USD 9.00 per Poseida Therapeutics share in cash. In addition, shareholders are to receive a non-tradable contingent value right (CVR) of up to USD 4.00 per share in cash.

SDA