Roche Pays Up To Enter The Gene Therapy Space

Gene therapy is an increasingly viable therapeutic approach and Roche (OTCQX:RHHBY) very much wants to be a part of that. While this Swiss drug giant doesn’t try to do everything in the pharmaceutical space, management does try to keep the company well-placed in the most promising new therapeutic areas. To that end, the company decided to spend $4.3 billion of its shareholders’ capital to acquire Spark Therapeutics (ONCE) and its gene therapy platform.

I believe Roche is approaching the Spark deal as a true technology/platform acquisition, particularly given the company’s IP assets and its early positioning in eye diseases, hemophilia, CNS, and rare disease – all areas of interest to Roche. While the near-term results of Spark’s SPK-8011 in hemophilia A will certain impact initial sentiment on this acquisition, I believe Roche is looking at the long game with this deal.

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Roche Pays Up To Enter The Gene Therapy Space