Roche Acquires Carmot for $3.1 Billion to Enter Obesity Drug Market

According to Reuters news on the 5th, Roche has decided to acquire obesity drug developer Carmot for US$2.7 billion, joining the obesity drug competition dominated by giants such as Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. Roche said it expects to close the deal with Carmot in the first quarter of 2024, and Carmot will receive up to an additional $400 million in funding if certain targets are met.

Over the past six weeks, Roche's stock price has risen by 2.4%.

Roche said Carmot's product portfolio includes a series of intestinal hormone drug candidates in pill and injection form, designed to provide treatment for patients with diabetes and obesity as well as those with general obesity.

The most promising drug candidate acquired by Roche is an injectable drug called CT-388, a dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist similar to Eli Lilly's Mounjaro and Zepbound.

Novo Nordisk is also rushing to launch the injection Wegovy, a GLP-1 intestinal hormone single receptor agonist. The group continues to increase production amid huge market demand.

Teresa Graham, head of Roche's pharmaceutical division, said that after the success of the first phase of the Carmot drug trial, it is ready to conduct human testing in the second trial phase (a total of three trial phases), it may be launched as early as 2030.

Graham said that the company's goal is not only to provide low-priced obesity alternative drugs to the market, but CT-388 may also become the best obesity treatment drug in the GLP-1 category, whether used alone or in combination with other drugs.

For Roche, the deal marks a return to the GLP-1 space it abandoned in 2018, when subsidiary Chugai sold the experimental drug to Eli Lilly for an upfront payment of $50 million.

Privately held Carmot, founded in 2008 by CEO Stig Hansen, announced plans to go public last month. While retaining his position on Carmot's board of directors, Hansen served as CEO of Carmot's spin-off company, Kimia Therapeutics, in early 2023, which is focused on the development of new metabolic disease drugs.