Roche has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire clinical-stage autologous CAR-T cell therapy specialist, Poseida Therapeutics.
The acquisition follows their partnership, which was established in 2022 to develop off-the-shelf CAR-T cell therapies for patients with various blood cancers.
Poseida's R&D portfolio includes a range of pre-clinical and clinical-stage CAR-T therapies, which are suitable for haemotological malignancies, autoimmune diseases and solid tumours.
Under the terms of the agreement, Roche will also acquire Poseida's technology platforms and GMP manufacturing capacity, which can assist in the manufacture of patient-personalised CAR-T cell therapies.
Chief Medical Officer and Head of Product Development at Roche, Levi Garraway, commented: “This exciting acquisition will allow us to drive further progress in allogeneic cell therapy while leveraging the successful existing partnership with Poseida,”
“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.”
Developing Poseida's lead programme
Poseida's lead programme, P-BCMA-ALLO1, is an allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy that targets B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA). It has received Regenerative Medcine Advanced Therapy designation for R/R multiple myeloma, and is suitable for patients who have undergone three or more therapies for the malignancy.
P-BCMA-ALLO1 has also received FDA Orphan Drug Designation for multiple myeloma, with early data being made available in September of this year.
INDs have also been filed to investigate P-BCMA-ALLO-1's potential in systemic lupus erythematosus and multiple sclerosis.
“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.”
