Obesity drug developers Aardvark, Helicore and Metsera have all netted raises in the past two weeks.
Aardvark Therapeutics has followed up filings and speculation with a $94 million initial public offering, putting itself on the Nasdaq early Thursday.
The company had initially filed plans for its IPO in late January without announcing figures, then announced potential stock pricing aiming for about $103 million, with 5,888,000 shares priced between $16 and $18. The stock ended up at $16 per share, bringing the expected amount raised to $94,208,000, just short of the company’s initial expectations.
According to its initial SEC filing three weeks ago, the money will advance its lead candidate molecule, ARD-101, as well as its secondary molecule ARD-201, both of which treat hyperphagia through slightly different biochemical pathways than the GLP-1 agonists Wegovy and Mounjaro currently dominating the market.
The IPO comes after an $85 million Series C announced in May 2024 and a $29 million Series B in 2021.
To say that the obesity marketplace is getting competitive is an understatement. Two weeks ago Versant Ventures invested $65 million to launch its fourth obesity startup, Helicore. Metsera, another obesity startup, sought a $289 million raise and $1.7 billion valuation in an IPO. Pfizer and Biohaven are both testing new obesity drugs. BioAge and Amgen bowed out from the space with disappointing data on their obesity molecules.
