Roche agrees takeover of Seragon Pharmaceuticals

Roche has announced that its subsidiary Genentech is to acquire the privately-held biotechnology company Seragon Pharmaceuticals.

Based in San Diego and founded in 2013, Seragon is focused on the development of a portfolio of investigational next-generation oral selective estrogen receptor degraders (SERDs), for use in the treatment of hormone receptor-positive breast cancer.

This class of medicines is able to both block oestradiol action at the oestrogen receptor and also eliminate the oestrogen receptor from the cell altogether. Early trials have shown their potential efficacy in the treatment of breast cancer patients who have failed other forms of therapy.

Genentech will make an upfront cash payment of $725 million (422.83 million pounds), plus additional milestone-based payments of up to $1 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2014.

Dr Richard Scheller, Roche's executive vice-president and head of Genentech research and early development, said: "We believe these investigational oral SERDs could one day redefine the standard of care for hormone receptor-positive breast cancer."

This comes after the firm agreed a deal to purchase Genia Technologies for an initial fee of $125 million last month.