Roche to Acquire Good Therapeutics for $250 Million

Good Therapeutics, a privately held biopharmaceutical company, announced on Sept. 7, 2022 that it has entered into a definitive merger to be acquired by Roche for $250 million, with additional funding contingent on predetermined development, regulatory, and commercial milestones. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2022.

This acquisition grants Roche the rights to Good Therapeutic’s conditionally activated programmed cell death-1 regulated interleukin-2 (PD-1-regulated IL-2) program as well as the exclusive right to the platform technology for the development of PD-1-regulated IL-2 receptor agonist therapeutics. According to a company press release, the current team at Good Therapeutics plans to form a new company, Bonum Therapeutics, to design further conditionally active therapeutics in immuno-oncology and other fields.

“Good Therapeutics was founded to create a new class of conditionally active therapeutics that will be more effective and avoid the problem of systemic immune activation seen with previous versions of such drugs. We have focused on PD-1-IL-2 as a biology that has great potential for benefiting patients,” said John Mulligan, founder and CEO, Good Therapeutics, in the press release. “Roche is a leader in immuno-oncology and has pioneered the field of engineered PD-1-targeted IL-2 therapeutics. Given their expertise in this field and broad capabilities in oncology, we believe they are a perfect choice for taking this important program forward.”

“We are excited to bring Good’s innovative PD-1-regulated IL-2 program into our existing oncology pipeline, which nicely complements our efforts on next-generation PD-1-targeted IL-2 therapeutics and our broader oncology strategy of providing cancer patients with innovative solutions and improving health outcomes,” said James Sabry, global head of pharma partnering, Roche, in the press release.

Source: Good Therapeutics