Pfizer bets $10bn on Imperial Professor’s weight-loss drug candidate
Imperial stands to make millions in royalties if the monthly jab lives up to expectations.
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced its $10 billion acquisition of Metsera on 13th November, securing control of the biotech firm whose leading weight-loss drug candidate was invented at Imperial.
Professor Stephen Bloom is credited with discovering the appetite-suppressing potential of the gut hormone GLP-1 at Imperial in the 1990s. This technology now forms the backbone of increasingly lucrative weight-loss drugs such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, which are expected to explode in popularity in the coming years. The professor, 83, continues to teach PhD students at Imperial today.
Bloom’s team founded the spin-out Zihipp in 2019 to develop a portfolio of obesity treatment candidates. One such invention was the compound behind an injectable treatment now known as MET-097i, which has been tipped to revolutionise the market by requiring monthly, rather than weekly injections.
Metsera acquired Zihipp in 2023, retaining Bloom as its executive vice president of research and development. It continues to lead MET-097i through a series of clinical trials, whose promising results have caught big pharma’s eye. Mid-stage studies on the drug showed it enabled patients to lose up to 14.1% of their body weight in as little as seven months. After a months-long bidding war with competitor Novo Nordisk, Pfizer eventually prevailed.
The Times reported that Imperial could stand to earn “multimillion dollar windfalls” in intellectual property royalties if Metsera’s entry into the coveted weight-loss market is successful. The university receives no benefit from the acquisition in the short-run, as it does not hold an equity stake in the company.
