Roche goes on shopping spree

Billion euro purchase for stomach medicine

24-Oct-2023

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(dpa-AFX) For more than seven billion U.S. dollars, the Basel-based company is buying an experimental stomach drug from the U.S. biotech company Roivant. In the deal, Roche is acquiring Telavant Holdings, a company owned by Roivant and US-based Pfizer. The deal includes development, manufacturing and commercialization rights for the active ingredient RVT-3101 in the U.S. and Japan from Telavant. Roche said Monday that RVT-3101 is a novel TL1A-targeted antibody. The promising new therapy is designed for patients suffering from inflammatory bowel diseases, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, according to Roche. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) had already reported on such a potential deal in mid-July.

Under the terms of the agreement, Roche will pay an upfront purchase price of $7.1 billion and a near-term milestone payment of $150 million. Once the deal closes, Roche will have full rights to continue developing and manufacturing RVT-3101 and commercializing it in the U.S. and Japan - assuming clinical and regulatory requirements are met.

In addition, Roche has committed to initiate a global Phase III study of RVT-3101 as soon as possible to make this therapy available to patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Outside the U.S. and Japan, Pfizer holds the marketing rights.

Telavant was jointly formed by Roivant and Pfizer in 2022 to develop and commercialize RVT-3101 in the U.S. and Japan. Roivant owns 75 percent of the issued and outstanding Telavant shares, with Pfizer owning the remaining 25 percent.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2023 or the first quarter of 2024, the company said.

Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.

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