The acquisition of breakout obesity star Metsera should pump new life into Pfizer’s portfolio, which over the last two years has suffered from three discontinued assets.
Pfizer has shelved three GLP-1 assets over the last two years but refuses to bow out of the weight-loss race. On Monday, the pharma dropped $4.9 billion to acquire obesity’s rising star Metsera, along with its pipeline of incretin and amylin therapies.
Pfizer is snapping up all of Metsera’s common stock for $47.50 apiece. The biotech was priced at $33.32 at market close on Friday before skyrocketing nearly 60% before the opening bell on Monday. Pfizer is also tacking on a contingent value right (CVR) of up to $22.50 per share in cash, payable upon certain commercial and clinical milestones.
The companies expect to close the transaction in the fourth quarter of this year. The boards of both companies have unanimously approved the deal.
At the heart of Monday’s acquisition are two of Metsera’s investigational therapies: The long-acting GLP-1 receptor agonist MET-097i and the long-acting amylin analog MET-233i, both of which are being developed alone and in combination with each other for obesity. The milestones for the buyout’s CVR all revolve around the development and approval of these two assets.
Metsera also has two oral GLP-1 therapies set to enter the clinic “imminently,” according to Monday’s release. The acquisition will also give Pfizer a preclinical nutrient-stimulated hormone therapeutic.
Analysts at BMO Capital Markets struck a positive tone about the deal but noted that Metsera’s long-acting obesity drugs are less familiar to the industry than standard GLP-1 and amylin drugs. “While we are positive on the possibility of Pfizer re-entering the obesity market in a meaningful way, we note Metsera’s assets remain early and have yet to be derisked by a large dataset,” BMO’s Evan Seigerman wrote in an investor note early Monday.
In terms of beefing up its obesity program, Metsera appears to be a good bet for Pfizer. The biotech in September 2024 became one of the most closely watched players in the weight-loss arena when it reported a 7.5% drop in body weight at 36 weeks for its GLP-1 injectable MET-097i. That Phase I readout was followed just months later with Phase IIa findings, touting 11.3% weight loss after 12 weekly doses. Then, in June, the biotech’s amylin contender MET-233i demonstrated an average weight reduction of 8.4% versus placebo at 36 days.
Metsera went public earlier this year, raising more than $316 million.
Monday’s deal could help Pfizer stage a comeback in obesity after its in-house efforts have hit setbacks over the past few years. In June 2023, for instance, the pharma axed an experimental GLP-1 drug called lotiglipron after detecting elevated levels of liver transaminases in treated patients. Lotiglipron was being tested for obesity and type 2 diabetes.
For the next nearly two years, Pfizer’s weight-loss efforts were largely focused on danuglipron, another GLP-1 analog that likewise ran into some tolerability issues. In December 2023, Pfizer had to abandon its hopes of a twice-daily oral regimen for the drug due to high rates of toxicities. The pharma trudged onward and in July 2024 settled for a once-daily schedule, though analysts were lukewarm to that decision.
Finally, in April, Pfizer decided to completely discontinue danuglipron, citing liver safety concerns.
Then, last month, Pfizer scrapped its last remaining GLP-1 drug PF-06954522 “following a review of data from its phase 1 program and the GLP-1 landscape,” a spokesperson told Fierce Biotech at the time.
