Danuglipron

Dive Brief:Pfizer will pay Chinese drugmaker YaoPharma $150 million for rights to an experimental obesity pill as the company works to catch up in a market dominated by Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk.The deal, announced Tuesday, includes as much as $1.94 billion in further payments for reaching certain developmental, regulatory and commercial milestones. YaoPharma, a unit of Shanghai-based Fosun Pharma, will also be eligible for royalties if the drug reaches the market.The GLP-1 agonist, dubbed YP05002, is currently in Phase 1 testing and YaoPharma will continue that research, Pfizer said. The New York-based drugmaker will be responsible for further development and says it plans to conduct combination studies with one of its own pipeline drugs, PF-07976016, a different type of obesity treatment currently in Phase 2.Dive Insight:Pfizer is struggling to regain traction after the end of the coronavirus pandemic eviscerated sales of its successful COVID-19 products. Pfizers stock is trading at less than half of the highs reached in late 2021 when its Comirnaty vaccine was raking in billions of dollars.By late 2023, Pfizers results were falling short of Wall Street expectations. The company began cutting costs and looking to other areas for growth, including a $43 billion takeover of Seagen that led to a new business unit dedicated to cancer research.The surging obesity market was an obvious target for Pfizer. But the company initial attempts to gain entry fell flat as two experimental oral medicines werent safe enough to warrant further development. Pfizer has more recently turned to dealmaking for help, winning a bidding war with Novo Nordisk to take over obesity drug developer Metsera for $10 billion.YaoPharmas medicine offers Pfizer another shot at an oral version of the popular injectable GLP-1 drugs. According to Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger, YP05002 is different than one of Pfizers failed medicines, danuglipron, with a chemical scaffold similar to a treatment called orforglipron being advanced by Lilly.Still, Lilly and Novo are far ahead in the race to advance oral GLP-1 medicines. Novo is hoping for Food and Drug Administration approval of the pill version of its Wegovy medication this month. And Lilly is looking for an FDA decision on orforglipron in the first half of next year after winning one of the agencys new review vouchers for the drug.Pfizers decision to tap into China is part of a broader movement among U.S. companies to license drugs from a market with more regulatory flexibility and lower costs. Earlier this year, Pfizer inked a deal with the Chinese biotechnology company 3SBio that included an upfront payment of $1.25 billion for a dual-targeting cancer treatment. '

Welcome back to Endpoints Weekly. It’s going to be a chilly weekend here in Boston, with low temperatures dipping into the 30s — the perfect weather for a warm cup of tea while recapping another busy week in biopharma. If you haven’t already, be sure to read the Endpoints team’s exclusive on how Pfizer closed its deal with Metsera. We also have a feature from Max Gelman on how competition is stacking up in the PD-(L)1xVEGF space, details on Richard Pazdur’s appointment to CDER, some positive results for Roche’s BTK inhibitor, and the story behind a new VC firm hunting for the next big advances in obesity treatment. We’ll be back on Monday. Until then, stay warm! — Nicole DeFeudis 💇‍♂️Pfizer completed its up to $10 billion acquisition of the obesity biotech Metsera this week, ending a high-stakes bidding war between Pfizer and Novo Nordisk. Last week, we reported that Metsera had accepted Pfizer’s offer after the FTC warned the biotech that Novo’s bid was risky under US antitrust law. But you can see exactly how the final deal unfolded in this exclusive by Endpoints’ Elizabeth Cairns, Kyle LaHucik and Drew Armstrong — including how Metsera’s co-founder Paul Berns was in the middle of a haircut when he was alerted that Novo was submitting its surprise offer. The deal gives Pfizer a fresh chance in obesity after the company dropped its obesity pill danuglipron in April. Novo fought hard for Metsera, as it looks to maintain a leading stake in the obesity market. But even though Pfizer won the battle, all eyes will be on how the experimental drugs it acquired perform in trials. Stay tuned. 🏎️ Drugmakers in the PD-(L)1xVEGF space are revving their engines, Endpoints’ Max Gelman reported this week. While much of the focus has been on Summit Therapeutics and its lead drug ivonescimab, two other rival teams have recently detailed their clinical development plans. Check out Max’s in-depth look at the competition here. One of the challengers is Pfizer and 3SBio, which inked a licensing deal for a PD-1xVEGF bispecific called SSGJ-707, or PF’4404, earlier this year. Pfizer said on Monday that among other trials, it has plans for a Phase 3 study in first-line metastatic colorectal cancer and a Phase 3 non-small cell lung cancer study evaluating both squamous and non-squamous tumors. Bristol Myers Squibb and BioNTech are also in the running. They teamed up this year to advance a PD-L1xVEGF program that BioNTech got in its Biotheus acquisition. Bristol Myers outlined plans for five mid- and late-stage studies during an earnings call last month, and BioNTech said this week that it’s also looking at studies in pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer and glioblastoma. Both companies intend to look at combinations within their respective pipelines, Max reported. Despite all the momentum, the race could take a while to play out as Summit plans to launch more studies and we wait for key data from Pfizer and BMS. Longtime cancer chief Richard Pazdur was appointed to lead the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, just over a week after former director George Tidmarsh’s sudden resignation. Pazdur has 26 years of experience at the agency and is the founding director of the FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence. During his time at the FDA, he has been focused on speeding up the development of new cancer therapies. Pazdur vs. Prasad: Current CBER Director Vinay Prasad previously criticized Pazdur in social media posts before Prasad joined the FDA. Endpoints’ Zachary Brennan analyzed the complex dynamic and the events that led to Pazdur’s appointment here. 💵Two former executives of Lilly’s diabetes unit have launched a venture capital firm called 501 Ventures, and they’re looking for the next approaches to obesity treatment. The firm will fund science for next-generation metabolic health medicines. Its founders, Enrique Conterno and Meg Powell, wouldn’t disclose the amount of capital they’re working with so far. But Powell said they’ll court pharma companies to help support the fund. Kyle LaHucik reported the details from this year’s ObesityWeek conference in Atlanta. Read more here . Roche reported positive results from two separate Phase 3 trials that tested fenebrutinib  in relapsing multiple sclerosis and primary progressive multiple sclerosis. Roche hasn’t shared the detailed results, but CMO Levi Garraway described the wins as “unprecedented.” Roche said it will wait for data from a second Phase 3 RMS trial before finalizing regulatory filing plans.