A new obesity biotech has entered the field — and it has $400 million from well-known life sciences investors to test investigational GLP-1 and GIP candidates licensed from Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals.
Bain Capital Life Sciences, Atlas Venture, RTW and Lyra Capital have invested in a new biotech named Hercules CM NewCo, per an announcement this week from China-based Hengrui.
Hercules’ pipeline now includes the global, ex-China rights to HRS-7535, HRS9531 and HRS-4729, according to the release. The deal includes $110 million in upfront payments to Hengrui, according to a source familiar with the deal. Hercules, a placeholder name for the biotech, will be based in the US, the source said. The new company is a partnership between Bain, Atlas and RTW, the source added.
It’s a similar approach taken by other blue-chip biotech investors earlier this spring, when ARCH Venture Partners, Population Health Partners, GV, F-Prime Capital and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 backed a new startup called Metsera with $290 million. The financing is being used to advance multiple experimental weight loss drugs licensed from Korean drugmaker D&D Pharmatech as well as an acquisition of London-based Zihipp.
Fueled by the surge in demand for Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 medication semaglutide and Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 and GIP drug tirzepatide, investors are increasingly eager to bet big money on the next generation of weight loss drugs. A flurry of new biotech startups focused on developing new obesity drugs has emerged, and Roche, Lilly, Novo and others have inked multiple acquisitions and deals.
There are several clinical studies of GLP-1R-directed HRS-7535 registered in the federal trials database. The tablet’s trials are listed as “not yet recruiting,” though the entries say they plan to recruit patients with type 2 diabetes, obesity and overweight.
Meanwhile, the injectable GLP-1/GIP candidate HRS9531 is also being tested in multiple clinical trials in a similar group of patients, in addition to studies for people with obesity who have heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, according to the database.
Hercules is not affiliated with Hercules Capital, which invests in companies in the life sciences, among other industries, according to a spokesperson for the firm.