Roche has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire Poseida Therapeutics, a public clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering donor-derived CAR-T cell therapies.
Based in San Diego, California, Poseida’s R&D portfolio includes pre-clinical and clinical-stage off-the-shelf (also referred to as allogeneic) CAR-T therapies across several therapeutic areas including haematological malignancies, solid tumours, and autoimmune disease, as well as manufacturing capabilities and technology platforms.
The acquisition builds on the existing partnership between Roche and Poseida following the collaboration and licence agreement established in 2022, which focuses on developing off-the-shelf CAR-T cell therapies to address medical needs of patients with haematological malignancies.
The joint vision of Poseida, Roche and Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, is to deliver the next generation of off-the-shelf CAR-T cell therapies with increased potency and favourable safety at a scale that can potentially reach more patients and enable broad commercial use.
“This exciting acquisition will allow us to drive further progress in allogeneic cell therapy while leveraging the successful existing partnership with Poseida,” said Levi Garraway, Head of Product Development and Chief Medical Officer at Roche. “We are very encouraged by the early clinical data, and this acquisition builds on our joint progress to catalyse the development of potentially first and best-in-class cell therapies in oncology, immunology and neurology.”
“Our interest in cell therapy is directly tied to our commitment to discovering and developing pioneering medicines with substantial patient benefit,” said Aviv Regev, Head of Genentech Research & Early Development. “We are excited to bring together cutting-edge scientific approaches and expertise to tap into the full transformative potential of cell therapy.”
Under the terms of the merger agreement, Roche will promptly commence a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Poseida common stock at a price of US $9.00 per share in cash at closing plus a non-tradeable CVR to receive certain milestone payments of up to an aggregate of US $4.00 per share in cash, representing a total equity value of approximately US $1.0 billion at closing and representing a total deal value of up to US $1.5 billion.
