Despite crowding in the next-gen weight loss space, Metsera has raised over $500 million since its April launch, indicating a continued appetite for these drugs.
Metsera is proving there is still room for the new guy in the GLP-1 world. The seven-month-old startup announced Wednesday it has raised another $215 million in a series B financing, on top of its $290 million financing round in April. The selling point: its GLP-1 candidate for obesity.
In September, the New York–based biotech posted results from a Phase I/II trial of MET-097i, its novel, potential once-monthly injectable GLP-1 receptor agonist. Participants treated with MET-097i saw a 7.5% drop in body weight from baseline at day 36, a result Metsera said was as good or better than the approved or similar GLP-1 compounds already on the market.
Also worth noting, the trial did not involve titration—a dose increase period currently required for Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy to ease the common gastrointestinal side effects. In this first trial, Metsera reported only mild side effects.
Following the positive data, the company is initiating a 16-week Phase II trial of MET-097i with preliminary data expected in the first half of 2025. Already planning for success, Metsera expects to initiate Phase III trials of MET-097i “shortly thereafter.”
The slew of high-brow investors involved in the Series B are an indication of just how hot the obesity therapeutics space remains. Wellington Management and Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners led the raise while Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, Viking Global Investors, RA Capital and more joined as new investors. Existing investors including ARCH Venture Partners and GV also participated. Metsera has raised over $500 million to date since its launch in April.
Already looking ahead toward approval, Metsera announced a supply partnership with Amneal Pharmaceuticals in October. Details were scant, but Amneal will be Metsera’s “preferred supply partner” for its products in developed markets including the U.S. and Europe. Amneal will also hold the license to commercialize Metsera’s products in some emerging markets.
Coming up behind MET-097i in the pipeline are an oral GLP-1 RA peptide MET-097 and MET-233i, an ultra-long-acting injectable amylin analog that can potentially be dosed once a month for patients with obesity and overweight. The company has an entire library of nutrient-stimulated hormone (NuSH) analog peptides from which it is advancing multiple candidates.
“We now have three medicines in the clinic with more to come, based on a best-in-class half-life extension technology and a potential best-in-class oral peptide delivery platform,” CEO Whit Bernard said in a statement Wednesday.
