Eli Lilly and Company, Pharmaceutical company headquarters in Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain.
Cristina Arias | Cover | beautiful pictures
Eli Lilly on friday said it will gain Versanis, a private company obesity drug productionup to $1.93 billion for bulk boost for the pharmaceutical giant weight loss treatment investment portfolio.
Eli Lilly agrees to pay Versanis shareholders in cash, which will include an upfront payment and possible follow-up payments should Versanis meet certain “development and sales milestones”.
Oakland, California-based Versanis, founded in 2021 by biotech investment firm Aditum Bio, has an experimental drug that treats obesity and other possible conditions.
This deal is Eli Lilly’s latest attempt to capitalize on weight loss industry the gold rush, which started last year after Novo Nordisk’Wegovy and Ozempic blockbusters exploded in popularity.
an estimate 40% of American adults fat. Analysts predict that the global weight loss drug market could be worth $100 billion by around 2030.
Versanis’ drug, bimagreumab, binds directly to certain cells in the body to reduce fat mass.
The company is studying bimagreumab in a phase two trial in overweight or obese adults, and in another trial comparing the treatment with Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Ozempic.
Bimagreumab works differently from Novo Nordisk’s drug and similar treatments from Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly. These drugs, called GLP-1 agonists, mimic hormones produced in the gut called incretin to suppress a person’s appetite.
But Versanis says combining bimagreumab with those incretin-based therapies may provide better outcomes for people with obesity and metabolic cardiovascular disease, including diabetes, kidney disease and disorders affect the heart.
Eli Lilly is working on several treatments for obesity.
The company’s experimental once-weekly injection, retatrutide, helped overweight or obese patients lose up to 24% of their weight after 48 weeks.
That surpasses the weight loss caused by other obesity drugs.
Eli Lilly’s experimental slimming drug, orforglipro, also helped overweight or obese patients lose up to 14.7% of their body weight after 36 weeks.
The company is also pushing for approval of a type 2 diabetes treatment, Mounjaro, for obesity.
