Swiss pharma giant Roche agrees $7.1 billion deal to buy Telavant Holdings

Swiss health care company Roche on Monday announced it would acquire Telavant Holdings in a $7.1 billion transaction.

Telavant produces drugs for people suffering from inflammatory and fibrotic diseases and is in the process of developing a “promising new therapy” for patients with Crohn’s disease, Roche said in a press release.

The terms of the acquisition include a near-term milestone payment of $150 million.

Once given full rights to the RVT-3101 drug — a therapy under development for inflammatory bowel disease, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease — Roche aims to start global Phase 3 trials, which would involve clinical testing on hundreds to thousands of patients with the target sicknesses.

“Based on the very promising data, we strongly believe in the first-in-class and best-in-disease potential of this late-stage antibody to treat people living with IBD,” Roche Pharmaceuticals CEO Teresa Graham told CNBC in an emailed statement.

“We are eager to develop this antibody further and bring it to market and patients in the US and Japan as soon as possible.”

Telavant is currently owned by Pfizer and Roivant Sciences.

In the Monday announcement, Roche also said it would obtain an option to collaborate with Pfizer on a new inflammatory bowel disease drug.