Two of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies have stepped up efforts to cash in on demand for fat jabs.
US giant Pfizer is to buy weight-loss drug developer Metsera for up to £5.4billion in an attempt to secure a foothold in the lucrative anti-obesity market.
And Swiss rival Roche is pushing one of its obesity drugs, CT-388, into a late-stage trial.
Both want to muscle in on a market set to be worth £75billion a year by 2030, which is dominated by Mounjaro maker Eli Lilly and Ozempic and Wegovy firm Novo Nordisk.
Pfizer, the firm behind one of the UK’s Covid vaccines, will pay $47.50 a share for New York-based Metsera, with an additional $22.50 if targets are met.
It was working on a weight-loss pill but ditched the project in April.
Fat fight: Pfizer and Roche are aiming to muscle in on the anti-obesity drugs market that is set to be worth £75bn a year by 2030
Metsera enjoyed a blockbuster debut on New York’s Nasdaq stock exchange just a few months ago, floating at $18.
The shares jumped 62 per cent yesterday – taking gains since it listed at the end of January way past 100 per cent.
Pfizer grew 0.5 per cent while Roche climbed 2.3 per cent last night.
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