The US pharmaceutical giant has so far had little success with the development of its own slimming product. According to a media report, it is now set to enter the market in a different way.
According to a newspaper report, the pharmaceutical group Pfizer is on the verge of acquiring the US company Metsera, which specializes in weight loss drugs. As the "Financial Times" reported, citing unnamed sources, the takeover with a volume of up to 7.3 billion dollars could be announced as early as Monday. Pfizer and Metsera were initially unavailable for comment.
According to the report, Pfizer wants to pay 47.50 dollars per Metsera share in cash. In addition, a further 22.50 dollars per share would be linked to the achievement of certain targets. The bid of 47.50 dollars per share corresponds to a premium of more than 40 percent on Metsera's closing price on Friday. At that time, the company had a market capitalization of around 3.5 billion dollars.
With the acquisition, Pfizer wants to secure a place in the lucrative market for weight loss drugs. The company had suffered setbacks in the development of its own drugs. Work on an experimental weight loss pill called Danuglipron was abandoned in April after a mid-stage study showed poor tolerability. A single daily dose version that was later tested on 1,400 patients raised concerns about effects on the liver.
Metsera was founded in 2022 and celebrated a brilliant debut on the US technology exchange Nasdaq in January. The company's most advanced drug candidate in development, MET-097i, showed an average weight loss of 11.3 percent in a mid-stage trial, according to the company.
The demand for weight loss drugs is growing rapidly, with competitors Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk battling for market leadership. Some experts predict that the global market for weight loss drugs could reach a value of 150 billion dollars by the early 2030s.
