Roche Completes $1.5 Billion Acquisition of Poseida Therapeutics to Advance Allogeneic CAR-T and Gene Therapy Pipeline

Jan 09, 2025 08:04 CST Updated 08:04

Poseida Therapeutics

Biological New Drug Developer

Roche

Oncology Drug Research, Development, and Manufacturing

On January 8, 2025, Roche officially completed the acquisition of Poseida Therapeutics (hereinafter referred to as "Poseida") for $9 per share.Approximately 15 billion US dollars. This is another significant strategic move by Roche in the field of cell and gene therapy.

After joining the Roche Group, Poseida will continue to advance the development of its innovative CAR-T cell therapies, AAV gene therapies, and other gene therapy drugs as part of Roche's pharmaceuticals division.

Poseida is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops cell and gene therapies for various diseases, including cancer, hemophilia A, ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) deficiency, and methylmalonic acidemia (MMA), using proprietary genetic engineering platform technologies.

Among them, several investigational drugs, including P-BCMA-ALLO1, the company's first allogeneic CAR-T cell gene therapy for the treatment of relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, have been approved by the FDA to enter clinical trials.

Reportedly, in preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies, P-BCMA-ALLO1 demonstrated effective targeting and killing of cancer cells. Compared with the autologous CAR-T therapy P-BCMA-101, it showed similar or superior performance in terms of anti-tumor efficacy. The addition of a proprietary "booster molecule" during the allogeneic manufacturing process further enhanced the expansion of gene-edited cells, allowing for the production of hundreds of doses per batch, thereby reducing the cost per dose to a level comparable to monoclonal antibodies. Moreover, P-BCMA-ALLO1 contains a very high proportion of Tscm cells, which could potentially lead to better therapeutic efficacy. (Scientist Luca Gattinoni and his team were the first to identify a population of cells in human peripheral blood that exhibit characteristics of both memory T cells and stem cells, naming them T memory stem cells (Tscm) (Nat Med.; 17(10): 1290–1297). Renowned NIH immunology professor Rosenberg, one of the earliest scientists to engage in adoptive immunotherapy, pointed out in his research that Tscm cells possess the strongest proliferative capacity and anti-tumor activity among all T cell subsets.)

The company's core technologies include the non-viral piggyBac® DNA modification system, the Cas-CLOVER™ site-specific gene editing system, nanoparticles, and AAV-based gene transduction technology. From the current technological perspective, the main method for producing CAR-T therapies is virus-based, while the piggyBac system can deliver CAR molecules into T cells without using viruses, addressing some of the shortcomings of current viral vectors.

Figure caption: Poseida Therapeutics' proprietary piggyBac DNA modification system is at the core of its technology. With its unique design, piggyBac efficiently delivers therapeutic genes into cells, addressing some of the shortcomings of current viral vectors.

Fig. Poseida's highly precise Cas-CLOVER gene editing technology shows almost no off-target toxicity in preclinical studies, demonstrating great application potential. Moreover, Cas-CLOVER can efficiently perform multiple edits on T cells and edit resting T cells.

Figure caption: Poseida Therapeutics, Inc. has developed multiple gene delivery technology platforms. These include AAV and nanoparticles, which enable tools such as PiggyBac and Cas-CLOVER to be delivered in vivo, thereby treating a variety of diseases.

Figure Caption:Poseida Therapeutics, Inc.Has a variety of world-class CAR-T therapies.

Figure caption:PoseidaThe company has developed a proprietary CAR-T product, primarily composed of T cells at the earliest stage of differentiation, known as T-scm cells. T-scm cells have a long lifespan, the ability to self-renew, and multipotent differentiation potential, enabling them to reconstitute the entire T-cell subpopulation, including T-eff cells. Clinical trials indicate that they may survive for years after infusion, providing long-term efficacy.

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