Roche Acquires Poseida for a Total of .5B, Focusing on Off-the-Shelf CAR T Innovations
Roche made an announcement on Tuesday regarding its decision to acquire Poseida Therapeutics for an upfront payment of billion in cash, gaining access to the California company’s innovative off-the-shelf CAR T treatment options.
According to the merger agreement details, Roche will procure all outstanding shares of Poseida at a rate of per share, revealing a notable 215% premium compared to the biotech’s closing price from Monday. Additionally, Roche will provide a contingent value right (CVR) that includes milestone payments totaling up to per share, bringing the deal’s potential value to .5 billion.
The transaction is anticipated to finalize in the first quarter of 2025, contingent on regulatory, antitrust approvals, and typical closing conditions. Both companies’ boards have given unanimous approval, and Poseida plans to advise its stockholders to accept the offer.
This acquisition acts as a continuation of a 2022 agreement, where Roche initially invested 0 million upfront and committed to up to billion in milestone payments to further develop allogeneic CAR T therapies focused on hematological cancers, including confirmed cases of multiple myeloma and B-cell lymphomas.
The major focus of both the 2022 partnership and this acquisition is P-BCMA-ALLO1, targeted for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma treatment. This candidate is engineered to identify and target the BCMA protein prevalent in cancerous plasma cells.
Recently in December 2023, Poseida shared Phase I data indicating an impressive 82% overall response rate in treated patients subjected to preconditioning with 1,000 mg/m2 of cyclophosphamide. Remarkably, the ORR reached 100% for patients with prior exposure to BCMA-targeted CAR T therapy and those unexposed to BCMA-directed bispecific T-cell engagers.
“This acquisition will enable us to enhance advancements in allogeneic cell therapy,” Roche CMO Levi Garraway expressed in a statement on Tuesday. Garraway remarked on the promising early clinical data and highlighted that this acquisition builds upon their collaborative progress in developing potentially leading cell therapies across oncology, immunology, and neurology.”
In addition to obtaining P-BCMA-ALLO1, Roche will gain full control over the Phase I P-CD19CD20-ALLO1 program from the 2022 agreement, which focuses on immune-mediated illnesses like multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus. The deal also grants Roche access to the initial P-MUC1C-ALLO1 trialing in solid tumors, as well as other early-stage candidates and associated technologies.
William Blair analysts stated on Tuesday that “Roche is a strategic match for Poseida because it leads the oncology sector, is investing in a dedicated cell therapy manufacturing facility, and markets Hemlibra, which may synergize with Poseida’s P-FVIII-101 gene therapy for hemophilia A.” They also noted that the undisclosed milestones related to the CVR make it challenging to predict its full realization in the future.
In another development on Tuesday, Roche disclosed that its TIGIT candidate tiragolumab, combined with the PD-L1 inhibitor Tecentriq, demonstrated no significant overall survival benefit in patients suffering from locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer when compared to Tecentriq alone.
The specifics of this finding were not detailed in Roche’s press release, but the company promised to disclose further data at an upcoming medical meeting next year. Roche did not clarify its plans for tiragolumab going forward.
In its release, Roche stated, “We continually assess our study programs to determine necessary adjustments for ongoing research, and this program will be subjected to the same review principles.”