Pfizer Nears $7.3 Billion Deal to Acquire Weight-Loss Drugmaker Metsera

Pfizer is closing in on a potential $7.3 billion acquisition of weight-loss drug developer Metsera. The announcement could come as early as Monday, unless deal talks fall through.

Pfizer and Metsera did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours.

Talks to acquire Metsera come just months after the biotech firm’s blockbuster Nasdaq debut, underscoring surging investor appetite for companies developing next-generation weight-loss therapies.

The deal marks Pfizer’s latest attempt to secure a foothold in the lucrative anti-obesity drug market, following setbacks in its own development efforts. The company had been working on an experimental weight-loss pill, danuglipron, but abandoned the project in April after a mid-stage trial revealed poor tolerability. A once-daily extended-release version was later tested in roughly 1,400 patients, but persistent liver safety concerns further undermined the company’s ambitions.

Metsera, founded in 2022 by venture capital firm ARCH Venture and investment company Population Health Partners, is developing injectable and oral drugs to treat obesity, based on the GLP-1 mechanism and other biological targets. Its lead candidate, MET-097i, an injectable, showed an average weight loss of 11.3% in patients during a mid-stage trial, the company said earlier this year.

Demand for weight-loss drugs is surging, with rivals Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk intensifying their battle for market dominance. Some experts forecast that the global weight-loss drug market could be valued at $150 billion by the early 2030s.