Eli Lilly & Company, a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain.
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Eli Lilly Friday said it would get Versanis, a privately held Obesity drug makerup to $1.93 billion to expand the pharmaceutical giant’s portfolio of weight loss treatments.
Eli Lilly agreed to pay. Varsani Shareholders in cash, which will consist of an upfront payment and potentially subsequent payments if Versanis achieves certain “development and sales milestones.”
Oakland, Calif.-based Versnes, which was founded in 2021 by biotech investment firm Adatom Bio, has an experimental drug for obesity and potentially other conditions.
The deal is Eli Lilly’s latest attempt to capitalize on the weight-loss industry’s gold rush, which began later last year. Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster injections Vigovi and Ozympic grew in popularity.
An estimate 40% of American adults Analysts estimate that the global weight loss market could be worth $100 billion by 2030.
Versanis’ drug, bimagreumab, binds directly to certain cells in the body to reduce fat mass.
The company is studying bimagreumab in a phase II study in adults who are overweight or obese, and in another trial comparing the treatment to Novo Nordisk’s Vigovi and Ozempic.
Bimagreumab works differently from drugs from Novo Nordisk and similar treatments from Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly. The drugs, known as GLP-1 agonists, mimic hormones produced in the gut called incretins to reduce a person’s appetite.
But Versanis said combining bimagreumab with incretin-based therapies could potentially lead to better outcomes for people with obesity and cardiometabolic conditions, including diabetes, kidney disease and heart disease. Included.
Eli Lilly is working on several obesity treatments.
The company’s experimental weekly injection of retatrotide helped overweight or obese patients lose up to 24 percent of their weight after 48 weeks.
It outperforms the weight loss caused by other obesity drugs.
Eli Lilly’s experimental obesity pill, orforgliperone, also helped overweight or obese patients lose up to 14.7 percent of their body weight after 36 weeks.
The company is also pushing for approval of its type 2 diabetes treatment, Monjaro, for obesity.
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Source by [CNBC News]
