Roche is buying U.S.-based gene therapy specialist Spark Therapeutics for $4.3 billion after developments in this area convinced the Swiss drugmaker to “step up”, Chief Executive Severin Schwan said on Monday.
Roche will pay $114.50 per share for Spark for a portfolio that includes a blindness treatment that has U.S. and European approval and other projects for hemophilia and neurodegenerative disorders like Huntington’s disease. Philadelphia-based Spark’s shares are up about 30 percent this year. The U.S.-company’s stock tumbled last year after two of 12 patients showed an unfavorable immune response when treated with a higher dose of Spark’s haemophilia therapy SPK-8011.
a developer of therapy products for debilitating diseases
Industry Biotechnology