Global pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced on the 22nd (local time) that it will acquire U.S. obesity and metabolic disease drug developer Metsera for up to 10 trillion won, drawing intense industry attention.
The acquisition price itself is $47.5 per Metsera common share, totaling $4.9 billion (about 6.83 trillion won). Including a contingent value right (CVR) that will be paid upon achieving specific clinical and regulatory milestones, the total deal value could reach up to $7.2 billion (about 10 trillion won).
With the Metsera acquisition, Pfizer secured a range of obesity and metabolic disease therapeutic candidates, including once-weekly and once-monthly injectables and an oral formulation. This allows the company to fill the gap in its oral obesity drug pipeline, which previously failed in development, and to make a fresh attempt at commercializing obesity and metabolic disease treatments.
◇ Founders with experience selling corporations see this as the "right time"
Metsera is a biotech startup founded in 2022 by Clive Meanwell, a British internist and chair of the board, together with Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Whit Bernard. Its headquarters is in New York.
Chair Meanwell founded The Medicines Company and sold it to Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis for $9.7 billion. Bernard also handled business development and strategy at the same company at the time, and is said to have grown Metsera from its early days with a roadmap in mind from "investment to development to sale."
Metsera was able to emerge quickly as a dark horse in the field of new obesity and metabolic disease drug development thanks to a diverse, specialized pipeline. Zihipp, a startup founded by Stephen Bloom, a leading authority on gut hormone research and a professor at Imperial College London (ICL), joined shortly after Metsera's launch, giving the company a library of some 20,000 peptide drug candidates and broadening the scientific foundation for obesity therapeutics research.
The Metsera founders appear to have viewed this as the right time to sell, given the growth of the obesity and metabolic disease therapeutics market. With fierce global competition and massive capital needed for clinical trials and commercialization, the strategy also reflects a preference to speed development by selling to a big pharmaceutical company rather than going it alone.
Metsera is advancing a variety of obesity treatment pipelines into clinical development, including a glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1 agonist secreted from the small intestine after meals, an amylin analog that mimics the hormone secreted from the pancreas along with insulin, and combination therapies.
MET-097i, which can be administered once weekly or once monthly, is considered a candidate obesity and metabolic disease therapy that could be differentiated from existing drugs in terms of dosing convenience and efficacy. Among Metsera's candidates is an oral obesity drug candidate that domestic company D&D Pharmatech transferred in 2023.
◇ Pfizer secures a shortcut in obesity drugs… focus on whether it can recover its share price and earnings
Through this Metsera acquisition, Pfizer has secured a shortcut to quickly catch up in the obesity treatment market. The company plans to begin phase 3 clinical trials of its obesity therapy candidates in 2026–2027, targeting a launch in 2028–2029.
The global obesity and metabolic disease therapeutics market is currently led by Denmark's Novo Nordisk and U.S. company Eli Lilly and is growing rapidly to tens of trillions of won annually. Pfizer had tried to catch up by developing its own obesity candidate danuglipron but halted development due to side effects. It has therefore chosen to secure a vetted external pipeline.
Chris Broshoff, Pfizer's chief scientific officer (CSO), said on an investor conference call that day, "Metsera has a clear competitive edge across three pillars: a once-monthly formulation, amylin combination therapy, and an oral drug without food or water restrictions," adding, "We are also developing an ultra-long-acting quarterly injectable and peptide candidates dedicated for combinations, so the pipeline has clear expandability."
Some see Pfizer's 10 trillion won big deal as a move to reverse the prolonged slump in its share price and earnings after the boom from COVID-19 vaccines and treatments ended. Heo Hye-min, a pharmaceutical and biotech analyst at Kiwoom Securities, said, "Pfizer made a strategic choice to respond to its recent share price weakness and blockbuster patent expirations," adding, "By using CVRs, it aims to minimize risk and restore investor sentiment."
The market also views Pfizer's latest acquisition as a potential starting gun for aggressive mergers and acquisitions (M&A) competition among big pharmaceutical companies. Heo said, "This M&A is also expected to improve industry investor sentiment toward biotech."