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Roche to acquire Spark Therapeutics
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Roche will fully acquire Spark Therapeutics in a definitive merger agreement for a price of $114.50 per share.
The total equity value of the deal is approximately $4.8 billion, inclusive of approximately $500 million of projected net cash expected at close, a Spark press release said.
“Spark Therapeutics’ proven expertise in the entire gene therapy value chain may offer important new opportunities for the treatment of serious disease,” Roche CEO Severin Schwan said in the release.
Spark will operate as an independent company within the Roche Group and will keep its operations in Philadelphia. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of this year.
Spark’s products include FDA-approved Luxturna (voretigene neparvovec-rzyl), a one-time gene therapy product for the treatment of biallelic RPE65 mutation-associated retinal dystrophy, as well as clinical assets SPK-8011, a gene treatment for hemophilia A, and SPK-9001, an investigational gene therapy for the potential treatment of hemophilia B, according to a Roche press release.
“As the only biotechnology company that has successfully commercialized a gene therapy for a genetic disease in the U.S., we have built unmatched competencies in the discovery, development and delivery of genetic medicines. But the needs of patients and families living with genetic diseases are immediate and vast,” Jeffrey D. Marrazzo, CEO of Spark Therapeutics, said in the Spark release. “With its worldwide reach and extensive resources, Roche will help us accelerate the development of more gene therapies for more patients for more diseases and further expedite our vision of a world where no life is limited by genetic disease.”
Perspective
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Pravin U. Dugel, MD, MD
This transaction underscores the value that large pharmaceutical companies have on gene therapy and how highly they regard gene therapy as the next disruptive technology in our field. Clearly, Roche has bought Spark not necessarily as a profit center. I believe Spark lost $78 million last year in net revenues. The market cap for Spark is $2 billion and Roche paid $5 billion. Although not a transaction for immediate profit, it is an investment to gain experience in ocular gene therapy. Novartis has done the same in neurology recently. It bought a company named AveXis, which is developing gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy, whose market cap is $8 billion and Novartis paid $10 billion. Novartis also believes in gene therapy and wants to carve its path immediately.
These and many other transactions emphasize the commitment that big pharmacological companies have for gene therapy. They are betting that gene therapy will be the next disruptive technology.
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