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.
Read more here:
Roche Pays Up To Enter The Gene Therapy Space
