Roche strikes $7.1bn deal to buy Telavant

Swiss drug giant Roche has agreed to buy Telavant Holdings from Pfizer and Roivant Sciences in a $7.1bn deal, it was announced on Monday.

The acquisition will give Roche access to RVT-3101, a novel antibody developed by Telavant as a potential treatment for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

Once the deal completes, Roche will have the rights to develop, manufacture and commercialise RVT-3101 in the US and Japan, pending clinical success and regulatory approval.

As well as the purchase price of $7.1bn, it will pay Roivant and Pfizer a near-term milestone payment of $150m. Roche will also have an option to enter into collaboration with Pfizer on another Telavant treatment that is currently in phase 1 development.

Thomas Schinecker, chief executive, said the novel antibody had "transformational potential to make a significant difference for patients living with IBD and potentially other diseases".

Levi Garraway, chief medical officer, added: "The recent phase 2b for RVT-3101 delivered the first long-term robust dataset demonstrating improved clinical remission in the maintenance treatment phase.

"Given this promising data, we believe that RVT-3101 has the potential to be the first therapy that offers high efficiency and safety for people with IBD."

Telavant was formed by Roivant and Pfizer in 2022. Roivant owns 75% and Pfizer the remaining 25%.

IBD is thought to affect around 8m people worldwide.

Pfizer will keep the commercial rights of RVT-3101 outside of the US and Japan.