Roche breaks into the obesity drug market with the acquisition of Carmot Therapeutics

In a bid to diversify their therapeutic offerings, Roche takes over Carmot Therapeutics in $2.7 billion deal, with one obesity drug spearheading the venture into the field as they prep for a Phase II in-human trial. 

Roche gains Carmot Therapeutics for it’s expertise in obesity drug development, with the aim of mounting a challenge to the leading weight-loss drug developers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. 

Carmot Therapeutics’ drug of mot interest to Roche in the takeover is the dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist, CT-388, which is of the same class as the drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound from Eli Lilly. 

CT-388 has demonstrated promising results from a Phase I trial and Roche has stated that they are ready to move the testing on to humans in a Phase II trial, which will be followed by a Phase II trial. 

Roche CEO Thomas Schinecker has been working hard to reestablish Roche’s drug development portfolio since taking over in March. Roche experienced considerable blows last year with their Alzheimer’s and cancer immunotherapy drugs hitting blocks in late-stage trials. 

To counter these losses and to expand into new fields, Roche bought the rights to an inflammatory bowl disease treatment from Roivant and Pfizer for $7.1 billion in October. 

The Carmot acquisition further strengthens the Roche position in obesity drugs with a portfolio including clinical stage gut-hormone drugs intended for patients with and without diabetes (in intravenous and oral dosage form, CT-868 and CT-996 respectively), backed up with several pre-clinical options in the pipeline. Roche attains access to this entire R&D portfolio with the acquisition, and upon closing to Carmot’s innovative Chemotype Evolution discovery platform in metabolism, which further underpins Roche's development prospects in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.

“Obesity is a heterogeneous disease, which contributes to many other diseases that together comprise a significant health burden worldwide. By combining Carmot’s portfolio with programmes in our Pharmaceuticals pipeline and our Diagnostics expertise and portfolio of products across cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, we are aiming to improve the standard of care and positively impact patients’ lives,” stated Schinecker.

In a recent statement, Roche confirmed that along with the initial payment of $2.7 billion, equity holders in Carmot Therapeutics will receive up to $400 million in payments over the next few years if their targeted milestones are achieved. 

Employees from Carmot are due to join the pharmaceutical workforce at Roche once the deal has fully gone through, hopefully by the end of the first quarter of 2024. 

Sources: 

[1] Reuters. Roche joins race for obesity drugs with $2.7 billion Carmot deal. [Date accessed 04/12/2023] www.reuters.com/markets/deals/roche-acquire-carmot-therapeutics-27-bln-2023-12-04/

[2] Roche. Roche enters into a definitive merger agreement to acquire Carmot Therapeutics, including three clinical stage assets with best-in-class potential in obesity and diabetes. [Date accessed 05/12/2023] www.roche.com/media/releases/med-cor-2023-12-04