Pfizer pays $150 million up front for a GLP-1 it did not have to invent

Pfizer is paying $150 million up front for worldwide rights to YP05002, a GLP-1 agonist from Yao Pharma, a subsidiary of Fosun Pharmaceutical, along with any other GLP-1 agonists the Chinese company has in hand. Milestones and tiered royalties could stretch the deal to $1.93 billion, money that arrives only as the candidate advances.

YP05002 has reached a phase 1 weight-management study in Australia and no further, so what Pfizer bought is a starting position rather than a result. The plan is to test it alongside PF-07976016, the company's GIP receptor antagonist, which until a few weeks ago was all that was left of Pfizer's obesity pipeline after three of its own GLP-1 candidates were dropped.

Nothing announced is a finding. No efficacy number, no comparison arm and no published result is attached to YP05002, and the headline figure is a ceiling rather than a payment: most of it depends on milestones a first-in-human candidate may never reach. What the molecule does in people is still an open question.

Another recent purchase shows the timeline Pfizer is buying into: Metsera's MET-097i is an injectable GLP-1 in phase 2b testing that could be taken once a month. Where that leaves any one person is not something a licensing deal answers, and it belongs with a qualified clinician.

Read the full story at Fierce Biotech ↗

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