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. 

Roche will acquire the company for $9 per share in cash at closing, representing a total equity value of approximately $1 billion. 

Stockholders would also receive a non-tradeable contingent value right (CVR) for up to an aggregate of $4 per share in cash, representing a total deal value of up to approximately $1.5 billion. 

Current Poseida employees will join the Roche Group as part of Roche’s Pharmaceuticals Division. 

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. 

“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.” 

The lead programme, P-BCMA-ALLO1, is an allogeneic CAR-T therapy targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA). P-BCMA-ALLO1. It has received Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy designation for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (MM) after three or more prior lines of therapies, and Orphan Drug Designation for MM. 

A second clinical programme in Phase I is P-CD19CD20-ALLO1, an allogeneic dual CAR-T in B-cell malignancies and potentially multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus.

Diana Spencer, Senior Digital Content Editor, DDW