Founded in 2021 by Aditum Bio, Versanis is built around a drug licensed from Novartis. The antibody, called bimagrumab, is designed to block cellular communication via two types of protein regulators and is being studied in people who are overweight or obese.
Lilly’s planned purchase of Versanis is the latest in a monthlong M&A streak that’s included acquisitions of Dice Therapeutics, Sigilon Therapeutics and Emergence Therapeutics.
The dealmaking gives Lilly new drug candidates in areas of research it has prioritized, like immune diseases, cancer and obesity. Its recent success developing drugs for the latter condition has fueled a stock price surge that’s made it the most valuable pharmaceutical company in the world.
Lilly’s most advanced drug in testing for weight loss, an injection called Mounjaro, targets a hormone called GLP-1, similar to Novo Nordisk’s wildly popular diabetes and obesity drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. Another promising medicine that’s not as far along also targets GLP-1, as well as two other hormones. READ MORE
by Ned Pagliarulo
Source: biopharmadive.com
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) has established a partnership with Novo Nordisk Pharma Gulf focusing on the creation of a national scientific guide for obesity management and weight control. The collaboration also aims to enhance public awareness of cardiovascular diseases and their complications.
Pharma giant Eli Lilly is teaming up with Haya Therapeutics in a $1bn deal to find multiple regulatory-genome-derived RNA-based drug targets, as it eyes up new targets in obesity. Under the deal, the companies will use Haya’s proprietary regulatory genome discovery platform to identify and validate long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) targets for developing potential treatments for obesity and related metabolic disorders.
The sale includes custom formulation and contract manufacturing capabilities for the nutrition market from the production facilities in New Jersey and Utah in the United States, and Tamaulipas, Mexico. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
