Even Bigger Venture Bucks For Obesity Therapies As Metsera Sells For Up To $10B

Venture investors have long been active backers of startups developing obesity and weight loss treatments, and they鈥檙e holding strong in the GLP-1 age. It helps, of course, that there are big returns happening as well.

Case in point: Three-year-old , a developer of oral and injectable drugs for weight loss, just delivered one of the sector鈥檚 largest M&A deals to date. In a deal with announced late last week, the pharma giant agreed to pay up to $10 billion for the New York company, following a litigious bidding war with rival .1

The planned purchase comes only nine months after Metsera made its debut. Just last year, the company also disclosed over $500 million in venture funding, with as its largest stakeholder.2

Venture funding around obesity and weight management

Metsera is one of several companies that raised sizable venture funding in the past couple of years with a focus on obesity and weight management. For a bigger picture of where investment is going, we used 附近上门 to assemble a sample list of 17 such startups funded in roughly the past couple years.

It鈥檚 a biotech-heavy list, reflecting a shift away from the pre-GLP-1 mindset that obesity could be curbed through dieting, exercise and willpower alone. Today, nearly 12% of American adults have used GLP-1 weight loss drugs, per an August . Another 14% said they are interested in using those drugs.

Popular as the current crop of medications have become, however, startup investors believe there is more innovation ahead. To that end, they鈥檙e backing a number of quite large rounds.

Largest funding recipients

The largest funding round for a company on our list is also among the most recent. , a developer of injectable and oral GLP-1 therapies to treat obesity, closed on last month. The Waltham, Massachusetts- and San Diego-based company also recently reported positive clinical trial for obesity patients in China.

London-based , a developer of GLP-1 treatments for cardiometabolic conditions, is another VC favorite. The company launched out of stealth in January with led by and .

Not everyone raising a good-sized round is on the GLP-1 track. Boston-based , which picked up a this summer, develops oral treatments that harness the therapeutic potential of the small intestine to treat multiple conditions, including obesity. And secured to further develop a class of therapies based on , or gastric inhibitory polypeptide, antagonists for obesity and related conditions.

Exits, too

We鈥檝e also seen a handful of good-sized exits in the past couple years.

On the IPO front, , which says it is 鈥渉arnessing the biology of human aging鈥� to develop new therapies for obesity and metabolic diseases, went public on Nasdaq just over a year ago, after raising over $290 million in venture funding. Thus far, it hasn鈥檛 performed well, with shares trading well below the initial offer price.

As for M&A, , a startup developing drugs with applications in obesity treatment, delivered one of the larger outcomes for the space two years ago, with agreeing to buy the company in a deal valued at up to $1.9 billion.

More recently, we saw a unicorn acquire a startup in the space, with wellness-tracking ring maker buying , a developer of tools for people to track their metabolic health, for an undisclosed sum.

Promising times

Overall, these are promising times for those who鈥檝e long struggled with obesity and the unpleasantries of dieting-induced hunger pangs or the difficulties of maintaining a desired weight range.

That said, there鈥檚 room for improvement. Roughly half of GLP-1 users surveyed by Rand, for instance, said they have experienced nausea as a side effect, while about one-third reported diarrhea.

Personally, I鈥檓 still awaiting the ultimate metabolic miracle treatment. This would ideally allow a user to eat unlimited amounts of junk food, abstain from vigorous exercise, and not gain any weight or suffer any unpleasant side effects. For now, it looks unlikely that venture-backed startups will be delivering on this particular vision.

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