Eli Lilly & Co. will acquire closely held Versanis Bio, a startup developing a drug for obesity and other conditions involving the heart and metabolism, for as much as $2 billion.
Versanis’ experimental drug, bimagrumab, aims to help people lose weight while preserving their muscle mass. The company is studying the drug candidate on its own and in combination with semaglutide, the hit obesity drug from Novo Nordisk A/S. Lilly will pay as much as $1.93 billion in cash, including an upfront payment and future payments depending on certain development and sales milestones, according to a statement Friday.
The deal highlights the opportunity pharma companies see in obesity after the success of drugs such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy. Lilly is racing to gain approval for its diabetes drug Mounjaro for obesity and developing a promising obesity drug, retatrutide, that delivered standout results presented at the American Diabetes Association conference last month.
“Lilly is committed to investigating potential new medicines to fight cardiometabolic diseases, including obesity, a chronic disease that affects over 100 million Americans,” Ruth Gimeno, the company’s group vice president of diabetes, obesity and cardiometabolic research, said in the statement.
Read More: Lilly’s Experimental Weight-Loss Drug Posts Best Results Yet
The shares rose 3.4% at 10:46 a.m. in New York.
(Updates with statement in fourth paragraph, share price in final paragraph.)
