Metsera Secures $350M in Series A, the Second-Largest Biotech Financing of 2024, to Advance Next-Gen Obesity Therapies

It is reported that Metsera’s investor roster includes some of the most prominent names in biotechnology investing. According to the biotech media outlet Endpoints News, Metsera was founded by Population Health and ARCH Venture Partners. Other investors include GV, F-Prime Capital, Exor Ventures, Mubadala, Newpath Partners, SoftBank, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and Americo. Metsera had previously raised $250 million, and both new and existing investors have committed an additional $100 million.

Following Mirador’s $400 million Series A financing, which became the largest funding event in the biotechnology sector in 2024, Metsera has emerged as the startup with the second-largest financing this year, securing $350 million.

Metsera’s CEO is Clive Meanwell, who previously served as CEO of The Medicines Company.

Clive Meanwell boasts extensive experience in the pharmaceutical and investment sectors. In 2020, he founded Population Health Partners, an investment firm, where he has served as Executive Chairman and Managing Partner since its inception. Additionally, Clive serves as Vice Chairman of BB Biotech, an investment institution primarily focused on publicly listed biotechnology companies, and holds board positions at Fractyl Health, Comanche Biopharma, EQRx, and Hugo Health.

Clive has been deeply involved in the development and commercialization of numerous biopharmaceutical products, including the oncology product Neupogen. ^®, Angiomax, the best-selling anticoagulant for cardiac surgery in U.S. hospitals^®, and Leqvio for lowering cholesterol ^®。

After holding a series of senior management positions in product development, regulatory affairs, and marketing at the multinational corporation Roche, Clive Meanwell founded and led The Medicines Company in 1997. This biopharmaceutical company, initially focused on acute hospital care, later shifted its core business to the field of cardiovascular diseases.The Medicines Company was ultimately acquired by Novartis in January 2020 for $9.7 billion.

Shortly after the acquisition was completed, Meanwell established Population Health, which also incubated Areteia Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on asthma. Areteia Therapeutics completed a $350 million Series A financing round in 2022, ranking among the top 10 biotech financings of that year.

Clive Meanwell’s new company, Metsera, was established by Population Health Partners in 2022 and has been operating in stealth mode. According to Endpoints News, Metsera positions itself as “a clinical-stage therapeutic and health technology company dedicated to serving individuals seeking weight loss.” The company’s website under construction states: “We are developing next-generation medicines to eliminate obesity for tens of millions of people,” adding that their focus is on combining incretin-based and non-incretin therapies.

According to Endpoints, other key leaders at Metsera include Chief Financial Officer Gbola Amusa, Chief Scientific Officer Brian Hubbard, and Chief Medical Officer Steve Marso.

Additionally, Stephen Bloom and James Minnion were appointed as Senior Vice President and Vice President of R&D, respectively.The two had previously run Zihipp, a small startup headquartered in London, which was acquired by Metsera in 2023.Bloom began researching gut hormones such as GLP-1 in the 1980s and co-founded Zihipp with Minnion in 2015.

Zihipp is dedicated to developing a series of satiety hormone analogs as novel therapies for obesity and diabetes. These include analogs of oxyntomodulin, GLP-1, GIP, and PYY, which Zihipp has optimized for maximal therapeutic efficacy and extended half-life. Prior to its acquisition, several of Zihipp’s drug candidates had successfully completed Phase I clinical trials.

Currently,In addition to acquiring Zihipp, Metsera has licensed six obesity drug candidates from a South Korean biotechnology company and plans to file up to seven Investigational New Drug (IND) applications within the next 12 to 24 months.

Metsera’s licensed obesity drug candidate comes from a South Korean biotechnology company named D&D Pharmatech.D&D Pharmatech is a clinical-stage biotechnology company. As the parent company of U.S.-based Neuraly, Precision Molecular, Valted Seq, and P4 Microbiome, D&D drives the development of revolutionary drugs through its disease-focused subsidiaries. Currently, D&D Pharmatech’s clinical portfolio includes GLP-1-based therapeutics for metabolic disorders such as obesity and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), as well as candidate drugs for various neurodegenerative and fibrotic diseases. Furthermore, the company focuses on the application of big data in central nervous system drug R&D, imaging biomarkers, and theranostics. Notably, DD01, one of D&D’s core pipeline assets—a long-acting dual GLP-1R/GCGR agonist—has received Fast Track designation from the U.S. FDA for the treatment of NASH and obesity.

In April last year, Metsera and D&D Pharmatech announced an initial licensing agreement covering three pipeline assets: an oral GLP-1 agonist named DD02S, an oral GLP-1/GCG/GIP triple agonist named DD03, and MET06.

On March 18 this year, the two companies announced an expansion of their transaction,Metsera will obtain licenses for the oral amylin receptor agonist DD07 and the oral dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist DD14.According to D&D Pharmatech’s Korean press release, Metsera and D&D simultaneously announced a second agreement,D&D licenses DD15, a long-acting GLP-1R/GIPR/GCGR triple agonist candidate, to Metsera,Scheduled to enter clinical trials in the first half of 2025, the press release also highlighted the potential of DD15 in treating liver diseases.These transactions could collectively bring D&D milestone payments exceeding KRW 1 trillion (USD 739 million).

Thus, through partnerships with D&D Pharmatech and Zihipp, Metsera has assembled a robust pipeline of obesity therapeutics. Among these candidates, DD03, DD07, DD14, and DD15 are in the preclinical stage, while DD02S is currently undergoing Investigational New Drug (IND) application. These pipeline assets feature varying degrees of innovation; rather than focusing solely on GLP-1, they employ multi-target combination strategies. For instance, DD03 is a triple agonist targeting GLP-1, GCG, and GIP, whereas DD15 is a triple agonist targeting GLP-1R, GIPR, and GCGR. Furthermore, these drugs are primarily designed for oral administration to overcome the limitations associated with current injectable GLP-1 therapies.

Metsera has become one of the many startups innovating by capitalizing on the breakthrough success of Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 drugs. Given the current fervor in the GLP-1 sector, numerous small startups with early clinical successes have emerged as some of the hottest companies in the biotechnology field: Roche acquired Carmot Therapeutics, a star player in diabetes and obesity treatments, for $2.7 billion; Viking Therapeutics, a strong contender in the competitive GLP-1 drug market, saw its market capitalization surge to over $8 billion following encouraging data; and private startup Aardvark Therapeutics plans to raise up to $200 million in funding for an initial public offering (IPO).

If it achieves clinical success in the future, Metsera could become another rising star in the obesity treatment sector.