Roche forking out $7.1 billion for Telavant

Swiss pharma giant Roche (ROG: SIX) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Telavant Holdings, a Roivant Sciences (Nasdaq: ROIV) company, whose share rose 5.3% in pre-market trading.

Telavant was established in December last year, when US pharma giant Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) granted the company rights to the Phase IIb ulcerative colitis (UC) therapy from Pfizer’s pipeline dubbed PF-06480605, renamed RVT-3101, in return for a 25% stake in the new company, with Roivant retaining 75%. The transaction involved zero upfront dollars and no milestones.

The Roche agreement includes the development, manufacturing and commercialization rights in the USA and Japan for Telavant’s RVT-3101, a novel TL1A directed antibody, seen as a promising new therapy in development for people suffering from inflammatory bowel disease, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.