While Baseline Therapeutics declined to disclose its starting capital, the startup said it will use the funds to push its GLP-1 asset BT-001 into late-stage development, with two trials planned this year.
Another player is entering the crowded GLP-1 space. Baseline Therapeutics launched on Tuesday to test the potential of the drug class as a treatment for addiction disorders—a field that industry leaders like Eli Lilly have recently started exploring.
Baseline is staying mum about how much money it is starting out with. A spokesperson for the startup told BioSpace in an email that the company is “not able to comment on financing quite yet.”
The biotech, based in San Francisco, will use its initial capital to bankroll the late-stage development of its lead asset BT-001, a once-weekly GLP-1 analog being tested for alcohol use disorder (AUD). Baseline has already aligned with the FDA on the drug’s development pathway and is gearing up to launch two randomized, placebo-controlled Phase III studies this year, according to a news release on Tuesday.
Baseline is also planning to test BT-001 in other substance use disorders in the future, including those involving opioids. Phase II/III development of the drug for cocaine and methamphetamine use disorders is set to start in the third quarter of this year, according to the biotech’s website.
“We are prioritizing execution: an FDA-aligned Phase 3 plan, a weekly dosing profile designed for adherence, and a multi-indication strategy that can extend beyond [alcohol use disorder],” CEO Nicholas Reville said in a statement. Alongside Reville is Morris Birnbaum, chief scientific officer, who held the same role at Pfizer’s Internal Medicine Research Unit.
Using GLP-1s to treat addictive conditions isn’t a new idea. In an August 2023 interview with BioSpace, Michael Glockman, obesity medicine specialist at Revolution Medicine, Health & Fitness, said there is growing evidence to suggest that GLP-1 drugs are “blunting that pleasure response across the board. I think there are so many interplays in the brain that are involved with the dopamine pleasure response, and addiction falls into that.”
A Phase II study published in JAMA Psychiatry in February 2025 seems to bear this potential mechanism out. Patients given Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide drank significantly less alcohol and had lower peak breath alcohol levels. Semaglutide treatment also predicted lower heavy drinking over time. The study wasn’t funded by Novo, though its principal author has received consulting fees from the company for other work.
Lilly, co-market leader with Novo with its obesity drug Zepbound, has started exploring the use of GLP-1s for AUD and in October last year launched a Phase III trial of brenipatide, a GLP-1/GIP candidate, in patients with the condition. The study is currently recruiting participants and is set to be completed in April 2028.
