Roche Announces Purchase of Seragon Pharmaceuticals

Roche has announced the purchase of Seragon Pharmaceuticals. Roche’s Genentech will be paying $725 million in cash for the San Diego oncology developer, in the hopes of expanding its pipeline of cancer drugs. Seragon currently has a breast cancer drug that is in the first stage of human based clinical trials. If cancer drugs in the Seragon pipeline, including Seragon’s breast cancer drug, ARN-810, reach certain milestones, Roche could end up paying the company as much as $1 billion in milestone payments. Once the deal is fully completed, which is expected by the end of the third quarter this year, Roche will be integrating all of Seragon’s drug portfolio into Genetech Research and Early Development.

Richard Scheller, EVP and Head of Genentech Research and Early Development, released a statement on the purchase. “This year, breast cancer will claim the lives of nearly 40,000 women in the United States, and up to half of these women will have a disease that is driven by the estrogen receptor,” he said. “We believe these investigational oral SERDs could one day redefine the standard of care for hormone receptor-positive breast cancer.”

Roche has been making a number of moves to strengthen its position in the market recently. Just last month, the company announced that it would be acquiring Genia Technologies, in turn, gaining Genia’s developing single-molecule, semiconductor based, DNA sequencing platform using nanopore technology. Earlier this year, Roche agreed to purchase IQuum, which is based out of Marlborough, Massachusetts, to bolster its molecular diagnostics offerings. Both of those deals were made for less than $500 million, making the Seragon Pharmaceutical purchase the company’s