Eli Lilly said Friday it will acquire Versanis Bio, a private company developing an obesity drug that specifically targets fat mass, as the race among pharmaceutical companies to offer weight loss medications intensifies.
The deal, in which Versanis shareholders could receive $1.9 billion in cash, indicates Lilly is aiming to diversify its growing portfolio of weight loss therapies, as Versanis’ drug employs an entirely different mechanism than the existing obesity drugs that Lilly is studying.
Lilly, along with other pharma companies like Novo Nordisk, has been developing products in the class of GLP-1 drugs, which mimic the glucagon-like peptide 1 hormone that helps people feel full. These drugs – including Novo’s Ozempic and Wegovy, and Lilly’s Mounjaro – have exploded in popularity because they lead to significant weight loss.