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Beyond GLP-1: Junevity Seeks Next-Generation Weight-Loss Medication
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By Brian Gormley, WSJ Pro
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Good day. Biotechnology startup Junevity is joining the quest for novel obesity medications, doubling its seed financing to $20 million to advance a drug it hopes will help patients sustain long-term weight loss.
Weight-loss medications are projected to notch $72 billion in worldwide sales this year, and the market for such medicines will reach about $139 billion in 2030, TD Cowen analysts have estimated.
Last month, drugmaker Pfizer won a bidding war to buy Metsera, a weight-loss drug developer that raised capital from ARCH Venture Partners and others before going public in January.
Pfizer purchased Metsera in a deal that could top $10 billion, beating competitor Novo Nordisk, which sells the weight-loss medicine Wegovy. Wegovy activates receptors for GLP-1 hormones to reduce appetite, while Zepbound, a rival drug sold by Eli Lilly, uses a dual-action approach by activating both GLP-1 and GIP receptors to suppress appetite. Both are injected once weekly.
Instead of curbing appetites, Junevity aims to help patients burn calories more effectively. Its drug, which it expects would be taken once every six months, is designed to silence a specific, yet undisclosed, gene target to improve metabolic efficiency, said co-founder and Chief Executive John Hoekman.
Junevity, which aims to begin clinical trials in late 2026, is developing the drug as a standalone treatment but expects it could also be used in combination with existing GLP-1s to help maintain long-term weight loss, Hoekman said.
Because it works differently, Junevity doesn’t expect its therapy to cause high levels of gastrointestinal side effects such as nausea and vomiting that have been seen in people taking GLP-1s, he said. Human studies will be needed to see what side effects Junevity’s treatment causes.
Junevity and other biotechs seek next-generation weight-loss medications that reduce side effects and deliver more durable weight loss. “If you can develop a therapy like that, then there is a very large opportunity in the obesity and metabolism markets,” Hoekman said.
And now on to the news...
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Excelsior Sciences’s lab. PHOTO: BROOKE ALEXANDER/STUDIO BROOKE
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Pharmaceutical reshoring. Excelsior Sciences has secured $95 million to produce drug compounds in the U.S., part of an industry drive to reduce dependence on other nations for materials used in medications.
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Based in Midtown Manhattan, Excelsior has raised $70 million in Series A financing led by Deerfield Management, Sofinnova Partners and Khosla Ventures, plus a $25 million grant from Empire State Development, an umbrella organization for New York’s two principal economic-development financing entities.
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Excelsior says its new chemistry process, based largely on technology licensed from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, enables it to produce small-molecule drugs—chemical compounds usually taken as pills—in the U.S. at about the same cost as the standard process, which typically involves outsourcing work to foreign contractors.
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Geopolitical tensions, tariffs and the pandemic have heightened interest in reshoring pharmaceutical production. “We can do things on Park Avenue as cheaply as they can be done in China or India,” said Excelsior co-founder and Chief Executive Michael Foley.
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$95 Million
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The amount drugmaker Excelsior Sciences raised in a Series A round and a grant from New York's Empire State Development.
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U.S., U.K. Strike Deal on Higher Drug Prices
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Britain will spend more on new medicines in exchange for avoiding tariffs on U.K. pharmaceutical exports to the U.S., the first major success in President Trump’s drive to get other countries to pay more for medicines that he says are unfairly subsidized by American consumers. The U.K. government will raise the net price it pays for new patented medicines by 25% and revamp a tax program to ease the burden on drug companies, according to a statement Monday by the U.S. Trade Representative. “For too long, American patients have been forced to subsidize prescription drugs and biologics in other developed countries by paying a significant premium for the same
products in ours,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said. He added that he hoped more countries would follow the U.K.’s “constructive negotiations.”
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People
SemperVirens promoted Colin Tobias to general partner and Raquel Scott to principal. Tobias focuses on B2B healthcare and financial technology investments. Scott sits on the board of Trial Library, an oncology-focused healthtech startup.
Circle Pharma, a developer of targeted therapies for cancer, appointed Anne E. Borgman as chief medical officer. She was previously CMO of Sutro Biopharma.
Cellares, a developer of technologies for cell therapy manufacturing, appointed Ali Soleymannezhad as chief commercial officer. He previously held the same position at MaxCyte.
March Biosciences, a biotechnology startup committed to combating challenging cancers and other diseases, appointed Gurpreet Ratra as chief business officer. He most recently served as CBO at Kate Therapeutics.
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Curative, an employer-based health insurance plan provider, secured over $150 million in Series B financing at a valuation of $1.275 billion. Chris Anderson’s Upside Vision Fund led the round, which included participation from DCVC and others.
Angle Health, a San Francisco-based AI platform for healthcare benefits, scored $134 million in Series B debt and equity funding from investors including Portage, Blumberg Capital, Mighty Capital, PruVen Capital and Wing.
Protego Biopharma, a San Diego-based startup developing small-molecule drugs that target amyloid diseases and other protein misfolding disorders, completed a $130 million Series B round. Novartis Venture Fund and Forbion led the investment, which included contributions from Omega Funds, Droia Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and others.
Triana Biomedicines, a Lexington, Mass.-based startup building a molecular glue discovery platform to regulate disease targets that are difficult to address, closed a $120 million Series B round co-led by Ascenta Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners. Ascenta Capital’s Lorence Kim and Bessemer’s Andrew Hedin will join the company’s board.
Akura Medical, a Los Gatos, Calif.-based medical technology startup focusing on addressing venous thromboembolism, held the first close of a Series C round with a $53 million investment led by Qatar Investment Authority.
Reema Health, a Minneapolis-based startup that partners with health plans to improve health outcomes for hard-to-reach members, raised $19 million in Series B funding from LRVHealth and Optum Ventures.
Trial Library, a San Francisco-based platform for recruitment and retention in clinical trials, landed $10 million in Series A funding co-led by SemperVirens and Next Ventures.
Lyric Bio, a biomanufacturing startup developing human tissue-based production systems for donor-derived therapeutics, completed a $6.6 million seed round led by The Venture Collective.
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A person receiving a vaccine during an immunization event in Los Angeles earlier this year. PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
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