Roche buys Poseida in $1.5bn acquisition

Roche Holding AG is acquiring clinical-stage cell and gene therapy (CGT) developer Poseida Therapeutics in the finalization of a $1.5 billion deal first announced in December 2024.

By the end of Tuesday, Roche purchased 66.11% of Poseida’s outstanding common stock, equating to about 65 million shares at $9 each with an additional non-tradeable contingent value right (CVR) worth up to $4 per share.

In its announcement, Roche stated, “Later today, Roche intends to complete the acquisition of Poseida through a merger of Blue Giant Acquisition Corp. with and into Poseida without a vote or meeting of Poseida’s stockholders.” As a result of the acquisition, Poseida shares will no longer be traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.

Roche has had ties with Poseida for years. In 2022, the companies agreed to a $110 million chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T deal, granting Roche license to develop, commercialize, and manufacture its P-BCMA-ALLO1 and P-CD19CD20-ALLO1 programs respectively targeting multiple myeloma (MM) and B cell disorders.

Poseida announced positive Phase 1 test results for the former product in April 2024. At the time, Bhagirathbhai Dholaria, associate professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee said, “I'm encouraged by these impressive Phase 1 subgroup results, which may be the first report of an allogeneic CAR-T therapy showing clinical activity in heavily pretreated patients whose myeloma has progressed after multiple BCMA-targeted immunotherapies."

Poseida released positive data about both candidates last month and presented posters for each of them at December’s American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition in San Diego, California.