(Bloomberg) Roche Holding AG agreed to pay as much as $3.1 billion for Carmot Therapeutics Inc., a developer of the new type of weight-loss treatments that’s sparked a pharma industry gold rush.Most Read from BloombergHow Suspects Laundered Billions in Singapore for YearsBonds Retreat as Doubts Over Rate Cuts Creep In: Markets WrapBitcoin Surges Past $42,000 as Crypto Rally Gathers SteamHere’s How to Invest in Gold as It Hits an All-Time HighAlaska Air Agrees to Buy Hawaiian in $1.9 Billion D
Though Carmot’s drugs are still in early stages of development, the deal could lead to a competitor to the likes of Wegovy and Eli Lilly & Co.’s Zepbound.
Roche’s Carmot Therapeutics acquisition brings three clinical-stage assets that the companies say could be best-in-class drugs for metabolic disorders. In addition to standalone use, Roche sees the Carmot molecules as part of potential combinations with its own drug candidates.
Carmot Therapeutics isn’t the first company targeting both the GLP-1 and GIP receptors to treat metabolic diseases. But the company contends that biased signaling activating certain pathways but not others is key to setting its drugs apart from others in the same class.