RE:RE:RE:RE:Roche enters into a definitive agreement to acquire Poseida This month both Roche and Novartis acquired early stage CAR-T therapy companies for bilions$. Now that both Roche and Novartis have CAR-T therapies that can only treat liquid cancers and not solid tumors, they are both likely circling ONCY for pelareorep's ability to "cure" solid tumors when combined with those therapies.
The proposed acquisition will establish a new core capability for Roche in allogeneic cell therapy, with lead opportunities focused on CAR-T programs covered by the existing strategic collaboration between Poseida and Roche in hematologic malignancies. It will include CAR-T programs for solid tumors and autoimmune diseases, along with Poseida's genetic engineering platform and related preclinical medicines.
And as stated earlier , a Phase 2 company with a platform technology that can address multiple solid tumors including those combined with CAR-T therapies is worth multiple billion$ , particularly when a Phase 1 CAR-T company does not have a therapy that can address solid cancers without bring combined with pelareorep. The push to plug patent-loss gaps has left fewer late-stage biotechs available for Big Pharma to scoop up, so there are more deals around earlier-stage companies and assets. The result is that these late-stage biotech companies and assets will be acquired at significant M&A premiums, from where they may currently trade.
As we know, ONCY is a late-stage clinical development company in which the company has been advancing the clinical development of pelareorep for the treatment of varius cancers with unmet medical treatment needs.
ONCY has currently pursued treatment in 5 cancers involving 7 treatment modalities - from the use of pelareorep as a monotherapy to that in combination with other cancer agents. These are: (1) HR+/HER2 negative metastatic breast cancer;
(2) Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC);
(3) pancreatic cancer with pelareorep + ICI (atezolizumab or pembrolizumab) + n-paclitaxel;
(4) pancreatic cancer with pelareorep + ICI (atezolizumab) + folfirinox,
(5) anal (SCCA) cancers,
(6) 3rd line colorectal cancers (CRC) with pelareorep + ICI (atezolizumab),
(7) pelareorep effective as a single dose in the treatment of Hepatocellular carcinoma cancer (HCC).
Such an approach in the treatment of unmet medical needs as outlined above, should well be affecting something "critical" for ONCY in the next couple of months, particularly now that final Phase 2 results have been released and both Roche and Novartis have announced acquisition of complementary 'early-stage" CGT assets to ONCY's "late-stage" pelareorep.