Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly will usher in new opponents, and the competition in the global first-class drug market is becoming more and more fierce.
On Monday, December 4, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche issued a statement sayingAgreed to acquire drug developer Carmot Therapeutics for $3.1 billion, with an initial payment of $2.7 billion, with additional payments of up to $400 million likely to be required depending on specific goals achieved in the future.
Roche said Carmot's portfolio includes a range of gut hormone drug candidates, available in both tablet and injectable forms, aimed at obesity in both diabetic and non-diabetic patients.
Carmot's most promising drug candidate is CT-388, which belongs to a class known as GLP-1 GIP dual-target receptor agonists, injected once a week, with effects similar to Eli Lilly's diabetes drug Mounjaro and bariatric drug Zepbound.
According to Teresa Graham, head of Roche's pharmaceutical division, the Carmot drug is ready for human testing in the second phase and could be marketed in the 2030s after promising phase 1 trial results.
Graham added that Roche's goal is far greater than replacing the market leaders with low prices, but to make CT-388 the best obesity drug in the GLP-1 class, either alone or in combination with other drugs.
While Carmot's drug is still in the early stages of development, the deal could lead to competition with similar drugs such as Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Eli Lilly's Zepbound.
Last year, Roche's Alzheimer's drug suffered a major setback after a phase II clinical trial failure. Thomas Schinecker, Roche's new CEO, has been accelerating the pace of mergers and acquisitions since he took office, seeking breakthroughs in a number of areas.
In October, Roche agreed to buy Tel Ant, a company that develops drugs for inflammatory bowel disease, for $7.1 billion.
Recently, there have been a number of acquisitions for development projects in the global ** pharmaceutical market. Last month, for example, AstraZeneca agreed to buy the patent rights to China's Chengyi Biologics' GLP-1 drug ECC5004 for $2 billion**. Eli Lilly & Company ended July 19$300 million acquisition of Versanis to further expand its product line.
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