With $290M in hand, newly emerged biotech Metsera thinks customizable combos are the future of obesity treatments
Clinical-stage Metsera has emerged from the shadows with $290 million in funding and an ambitious aim to usher in the new generation of obesity and metabolic illness treatments.
“It’s an almost limitless market opportunity,” Metsera CEO Clive Meanwell, M.D., told Fierce Biotech during an interview. The leader is a British oncologist with substantial industrial experience, including establishing and directing The Medicines Company, a biotech that developed the cardiovascular drug inclisiran (Leqvio) and was bought by Novartis in 2019 for $9.7 billion. “I think we have a real shot here at making some major products.”
Meanwell also helped establish and is a partner in the private equity business Population Health Partners. The CEO noted that the company, along with Arch Venture Partners, debuted Metsera amid biotech’s “nuclear winter” in early 2022.
However, the firm was able to remain in stealth with the support of numerous additional investors, including F-Prime Capital, GV, Mubadala Capital, Newpath Partners, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and other unknown investors.
The $290 million funding, led by creator Arch, is a series A round with “little seed” money, according to Meanwell.
“There was emerging evidence that diabetes and weight loss were going to become big categories,” he added, explaining how Metsera was created.
“Initially, we had discussions with Big Pharma about their appetite for investing—I’d say in 2020, it was sort of lukewarm,” Meanwell told me. “Nobody had quite seen the juggernaut that was coming.”
After Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk began publishing “great data” for the diabetic and obesity franchises-in-a-drug semaglutide and tirzepatide, respectively, Meanwell and the Arch team decided to forego Big Pharma goals and launch their own venture.
“We went out and said, Let’s go shopping among the 200-plus companies that are already working in this space, and let’s see if we can pick up some great technology and create a new company that could develop these technologies for commercial use,'” he added.
And this is exactly what occurred. While in stealth mode, Metsera, located in New York, acquired Zihipp, a diabetes and obesity firm based in London. Stephen R. Bloom, a researcher and Zihipp Chair, is currently Metsera’s senior vice president of research and development.
Metsera acquired a proprietary library of over 20,000 gut hormone peptides from Zihipp, which can be combined and matched “a bit like a Lego kit,” as Meanwell put it.
Metsera then sought out oral absorption technology from an undisclosed business, which is intended to allow oral delivery of injectable peptides.
“Metsera’s portfolio is designed to unlock new treatment strategies through scalable, sustainable, and personalized interventions for weight loss, weight maintenance, and disease prevention,” Metsera R&D lead Bloom, who is also the head of drug development, metabolism, digestion, and reproduction at Imperial College London, stated in an April 18 press release. “Through optimized combinations of injectable and oral peptides, we aim to establish a cycle of continuous and responsive innovation to address a growing worldwide obesity crisis.”
Metsera’s injectable and oral development programs are comprised of peptides and peptide-antibody conjugates, two of which are clinically viable assets. One of those initiatives is an unknown chemical, while the other is an injectable, completely biased GLP-1 receptor agonist being tested in a phase I clinical study.
The asset is intended to outperform competitors in terms of duration of impact and is now being evaluated among non-diabetic individuals. Meanwell stated that the US experiment is presently enrolling participants.
The biotech’s preclinical pipeline also includes a dual amylin/calcitonin receptor agonist (DACRA) designed to be combined with the GLP-1 receptor agonist, a unimolecular GGG (GLP-1, GIP, glucagon) engineered for combination use with DACRA, and two IND-ready candidates derived from the company’s oral peptide delivery platform.
“The aim is to develop a suite of molecules that are miscible, or multi-target, molecules that give you the advantages of increased effect with fewer side effects,” he added. “We think the future is combinations, and we want to be there.”
“Most individuals would agree that a GLP-1 backbone or core is fundamental to the majority of their methods. And then the question is, “What do you add to that?” The leader proceeded. “Novo completed the amylin route successfully. Lilly followed the GIP-glucagon pathway. And we believe you should pursue both because, in the end, those two paths will intersect.
Metsera’s projects are intended to meet numerous therapeutic goals and future requirements in the rapidly changing weight loss therapy environment by promoting more successful weight management, muscle preservation, less frequent dosage, and greater tolerability, according to the firm.
While Meanwell could not reveal the exact size of Metsera’s crew, he did say, “It’s not small.” He stated that a biotech of 70 people is an ideal size. Metsara’s leaders, in addition to R&D director Bloom, include Brian Hubbard, Ph.D., John Amatruda, M.D., Whit Bernard, Christopher Cox, and Steven Marso, M.D., who is the primary author of two New England Journal of Medicine studies that put semaglutide on the map.
