Roche to pay US$7.1 billion for Telavant to boost its pipeline

ROCHE Holding said on Monday (Oct 23) it will pay US$7.1 billion to acquire Telavant Holdings in a bid to shore up its pipeline of experimental medicines.

The Swiss pharmaceutical company will gain rights in the US and Japan to develop and market RVT-3101, a promising new therapy for treating inflammatory bowel disease that’s currently undergoing clinical trials. Roche will also provide a near-term milestone payment of US$150 million.

The antibody therapy developed by Telavant, which is owned by Roivant Sciences and Pfizer, has a novel mode of action that targets both inflammation and fibrosis, giving it potential to be applied in multiple other diseases, Roche said in a statement. In trials so far the drug, which can be delivered at home via injection, has shown it can be used safely by patients. 

Roche has come under pressure to improve its pipeline as a windfall of revenue from products used in the Covid-19 pandemic comes to an end. Roche said it will start a global Phase 3 trial for RVT-3101 as soon as possible.

Roche’s shares plunged last week after the company didn’t upgrade its financial targets and reported declining quarterly revenue.

Chief executive officer Thomas Schinecker faces a two-pronged challenge: the loss of billions of dollars of pandemic-linked revenue at the same time that some clinical trial stumbles have left many investors questioning the company’s ability to deliver on its highest-profile projects.

Schinecker has pledged to improve the drugmaker’s research and development productivity. Transactions are “not a must” and the existing pipeline and portfolio will be able to fuel growth, Schinecker said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

“For us it’s important if we look at early-stage deals or late-stage deals that it make sense from a scientific perspective and it has to make sense from a financial perspective,” Schinecker said.

Inflammatory bowel disease is a group of chronic gastrointestinal disorders that affects almost 8 million people worldwide and most of them, some 80 per cent, cannot find lasting treatments. 

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Telavant was formed in 2022 specifically to develop and commercialise RVT-3101 in the US and Japan. Roivant owns 75 per cent of Telavant and Pfizer owns the rest. BLOOMBERG