Roche to buy CAR-T firm Poseida Therapeutics

Roche has agreed to acquire Poseida Therapeutics, a chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy company based in San Diego, for about $1.5 billion. Roche and Poseida already have a partnership to develop therapies for hematologic cancers; the purchase will add Poseida’s solid- tumor and autoimmune programs and genetic engineering platform. Poseida has three CAR-T candidates in Phase 1 trials. In partnership with Roche, it has one candidate for B-cell malignancies and one for multiple myeloma; separate from Roche, it has a candidate for solid tumors in breast, ovarian, renal, colorectal, lung, and pancreatic cancers.