Roche Holding Ltd. Genussscheine (SWX: ROG) have told the market on Tuesday that they have completed the purchase of gene therapy specialist Spark Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: ONCE).
The deal is valued at $4.3 billion and the deal has been formally completed following clearance from the British and US competition authorities, and becomes Roche’s second acquisition in a short space of time following the recent deal with US based Promedior.
Regulators investigated the potential move to ensure that it will not lesson competition in the hemophilia A treatment market, however both the Federal Trade Commission and CMA approved the deal without demanding asset sales.
Roche has purchased US based Spark Therapeutics to expand in gene therapy and boost its market in hemophilia A, where Roche’s existing drug will surpass $1 billion in sales across 2019.
Spark is a relatively young company and has rivals such as Yourgene Health PLC who recently gave shareholders a confident expectation guidance to hit further growth for the full year.
Regulators had feared Roche might sabotage Spark’s hemophilia program to benefit Hemlibra, but came to another conclusion.
“The evidence developed during staff’s investigation did not indicate that Roche would have the incentive to delay or terminate Spark’s developmental effort for its hemophilia A gene therapy,” the FTC said after its 5-0 approval vote.
Regulatory clearance means that Roche will now likely become one of the market leaders in the treatment of hemophilia A.
Roche is making a real statement to the pharmaceuticals market, after the loss it saw in the immune therapies for cancer when both Merck (NYSE: MRK) and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (NYSE: BMY) eclipsed it recently.
The firm has followed similar line as rivals to make an ensured effort to divulge into the gene therapy market. Notably, industry rival Novartis recently acquired AveXis, hence the move by Roche comes at no surprise, in order to keep up with rivals.
“That’s why the market was increasingly worried that the deal announced in February was taking so long,” said Michael Nawrath, an analyst at Zuercher Kantonalbank.
Roche have agreed to pay more than twice of what Spark’s closing price was, and as of today Roche holds more than 60% of Spark shares.
“Following completion of the merger, Spark will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Roche,” Roche said.
Shares in Roche trade at 303CHF (-0.31%). 17/12/19 13:19BST.