HQ Team
July `4, 2023: Eli Lilly and Company will acquire private Versanis for $ 1.93 billion in cash to expand its portfolio of obesity drugs, the Indianapolis-based company said in a statement.
“Lilly is committed to investigating potential new medicines to fight cardiometabolic diseases, including obesity, a chronic disease that affects over 100 million Americans,” said Ruth Gimeno, Ph.D., group vice president, of diabetes, obesity, and cardiometabolic research at Lilly.
“By unifying the knowledge and expertise in incretin biology at Lilly with the deep understanding of activin biology at Versanis, we aim to harness the potential benefits of such combinations for patients.”
According to the agreement, Versanis shareholders could receive up to $1.925 billion in cash, inclusive of an upfront payment and subsequent payments upon achievement of certain development and sales milestones.
Versanis, a private clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of new medicines for the treatment of cardiometabolic diseases.
The company’s bimagrumab is a monoclonal antibody that blocks activin type II receptors, directly targeting fat and muscle tissue, and shows promise for significant impact in patients with obesity and cardiometabolic diseases.
In a phase II study in patients with type II diabetes and obesity, bimagrumab significantly reduced body weight, total body fat, visceral adiposity, and HbA1c while increasing lean mass.
Bimagrumab is currently being assessed in the phase 2b study alone and in combination with semaglutide in adults who are overweight or obese.
Bimagrumab has been investigated across 21 clinical trials including more than 1,000 patients with exposure to bimagrumab for up to 18 months.
Combining incretins with bimagrumab has the potential to further reduce fat mass while preserving muscle mass and may lead to better outcomes for people living with obesity and obesity-related complications, according to a company statement.
“It has been a privilege for our team to advance bimagrumab to address one of the greatest health crises of our time,” said Mark Pruzanski, M.D., Versanis chairman and CEO.
“As a global leader developing life-changing medicines, Lilly is ideally positioned to realize the potential of bimagrumab in combination with its incretin therapies to benefit people living with cardiometabolic diseases.”
