Roche to buy Poseida, building on CAR-T cell collaboration
Companies developing cell therapies for cancer, MS
Roche signed a definitive agreement to acquire Poseida Therapeutics, a deal that includes Poseida’s portfolio of CAR T-cell therapy candidates being developed for multiple sclerosis (MS) and other diseases.
Poseida and Roche have been collaborating since 2022 on cell therapies for people with blood cancer. The companies expect to complete the merger, valued at up to $1.5 billion, in the first quarter of 2025.
Among the assets Roche will acquire is a cell therapy called P-CD19CD20-ALLO1 that’s currently in Phase 1 clinical testing for certain cancers. Applications have also been filed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking clearance to initiate clinical trials of the therapy in people with MS and systemic lupus erythematosus, according to a Roche press release.
“This exciting acquisition will allow us to drive further progress in … cell therapy while leveraging the successful existing partnership with Poseida,” said Levi Garraway, MD, PhD, 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.”
MS is an autoimmune disease wherein the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy parts of the brain and spinal cord, leading to inflammation that damages and destroys nerve cells. B-cells, a family of antibody-producing immune cells, are central to these attacks.
Enabling T-cell attacks
CAR T-cell therapy is a potential strategy that can be used to eliminate B-cells, which is of interest for treating MS and other conditions in which B-cells are involved, including certain autoimmune conditions and cancers.
The idea behind the approach is to enhance the ability of immune T-cells, which can launch an attack against anything they deem a threat, to specifically go after and eliminate B-cells.
T-cells are isolated from a patient or donor and modified in the lab to contain a chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR, that will recognize a protein found on the surface of B-cells. When infused into the patient, these T-cells are now equipped to target and kill B-cells.
Poseida’s CAR T-cell therapies are made using cells from healthy donors, which is called an allogeneic approach. This enables the therapy to be produced ahead of time, offering a ready-to-use product that will make the therapy more widely accessible than autologous approaches, in which a patient’s own cells are engineered.
P-CD19CD20-ALLO1 is a dual CAR T-cell therapy, which means the T-cells are modified to target two B-cell proteins at once — CD19 and CD20. This is expected to maximize the therapy’s ability to kill off all problematic cells.
The therapy is currently being tested in a Phase 1 clinical trial (NCT06014762) involving adults with difficult-to-treat B-cell mediated cancers.
As part of the merger, Roche will also acquire Poseida’s therapeutic candidates in preclinical and clinical development for treating blood cancers, solid tumors, and autoimmune conditions, and its manufacturing capabilities and technology platforms.
“Our interest in cell therapy is directly tied to our commitment to discovering and developing pioneering medicines with substantial patient benefit,” said Aviv Regev, PhD, head of research and early development at Genentech, a Roche subsidiary working on CAR T-cell therapies. “We are excited to bring together cutting-edge scientific approaches and expertise to tap into the full transformative potential of cell therapy.”
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