For 2025, Roche will continue a careful approach to high-priced deals, putting science at the center of its business development decisions, executives said Thursday.
Roche will maintain a “disciplined” approach to dealmaking in 2025, prioritizing assets that are backed by sound science and make strong financial sense for the pharma, company executives said during a fourth quarter earnings call Thursday.
During the call, CEO Thomas Schinecker pointed to Roche’s four main therapeutic areas—oncology/hematology, immunology, neurology and ophthalmology—as targets for business development “in terms of strengthening our pipeline.”
In assessing deals, “we always look very much at science,” Schinecker added, noting that the company considers the data available to provide “confidence” in an asset or potential partner, while also scrutinizing the financial terms of the deal.
“We will continue to be very disciplined and we’ll continue to make sure that the deals fit into our strategic agenda,” he continued.
The pharma released its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings report on Thursday, highlighting a 7% increase in revenue in 2024 compared to the year before at 60.5 billion CHF ($66.6 billion). The pharmaceuticals unit continues to be the biggest money-maker, earning nearly $50.9 billion last year. Key growth drivers were Vabysmo, Phesgo, Ocrevus and Hemlibra, which together collected 16.9 billion CHF ($18.65 billion) in sales, a 3.3 billion CHF ($3.64 billion) increase over 2023.
For 2025, the company forecasts a mid-single-digit increase in group sales and expects core earnings-per-share to hit the high-single-digit range.
Deals and Discontinuations
Roche inked several high-ticket deals in 2024, most notably the $1.5 billion acquisition of Poseida Therapeutics in November, with an eye toward developing off-the-shelf CAR-T therapies. The same month, the pharma inked a back-loaded discovery deal with Flare Therapeutics to target previously undruggable transcription factors. The contract involves a $70 million upfront payment and potentially more than $1.8 billion in milestones.
A few weeks later, Roche put down $40 million upfront—and the promise of more than $900 million in milestones—in an autoimmune-focused deal with COUR Pharmaceuticals. The pharma also shelled out $2.7 billion to purchase Carmot Therapeutics and its portfolio of obesity therapies. The deal was first unveiled in December 2023 but closed in January 2024.
Alongside the earnings report on Thursday, Roche also culled five early-stage assets from its development pipeline. These include RG6194, a bispecific monoclonal antibody targeting CD3 and HER2 for breast cancer and efbalropendekin alfa, a fusion protein being trialed for solid tumors and multiple myeloma.
The pharma also discontinued five studies of its anti-TIGIT antibody tiragolumab: one Phase I trial in solid tumors, two mid-stage studies in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck and two Phase III trials in NSCLC and esophageal cancer.
The company will continue advancing tiragolumab as a first-line treatment for stage III unresectable NSCLC, locally advanced esophageal cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma. Regulatory submissions for these three indications are planned for 2025 and 2026.
