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Among recent deals to acquire obesity drug development projects, AstraZeneca last month agreed to pay up to $2bn for the rights to an experimental pill from China’s Eccogene. Lilly in July acquired unlisted Versanis for up to $1.93bn to further boost its pipeline.

New Roche CEO Thomas Schinecker, who is pursuing a variety of therapeutic fields to offset falling oncology sales, has set a high deal pace to restore the development pipeline that was hit by trial setbacks in Alzheimer’s and cancer immunotherapy last year.

Roche agreed in October to pay an initial $7.1bn to Roivant and Pfizer for rights to a new inflammatory bowel syndrome drug.

Under the Carmot deal, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2024, its owners will receive up to $400m in addition to the upfront payment if certain milestones are achieved, Roche said.

For the Swiss drugmaker, the deal marks a return to a GLP-1 field that it abandoned in 2018, when its subsidiary Chugai sold the rights to an experimental pill to Lilly for $50m upfront. “This is a place where we needed the science to evolve a bit more completely,” said Graham.

Privately held Carmot, which announced plans to go public last month, was co-founded in 2008 by long-time CEO Stig Hansen.

While keeping a Carmot board seat, Hansen early this year became CEO of Kimia Therapeutics, which was spun out of Carmot to focus on the discovery of new metabolic diseases drugs.

Carmot’s portfolio includes a range of gut-hormone drug candidates, in pill and injection form, aimed at treating obesity in patients with and without diabetes, said Roche.