AstraZeneca has exercised an option to acquire SixPeaks Bio, an obesity drug startup that it helped launch last year with Versant Ventures.
AstraZeneca revealed the deal in its latest quarterly earnings report on Wednesday. According to that report, the British drugmaker on Oct. 22 paid $170 million for the shares in SixPeaks it didn’t already own. AstraZeneca will add another $30 million to the deal in two years, and could shell out a further $100 million based on the achievement of certain regulatory milestones.
SixPeaks launched in 2024 with $30 million in funding and a collaboration that gave AstraZeneca the chance to acquire it at an agreed-upon price. In an interview at the time, SixPeaks CEO Phillip Larsen noted how having a partnership in place early was critical, given the “huge” costs associated with developing cardiovascular drugs.
That arrangement was also the continuation of a “build-to-buy” startup strategy Versant has frequently dabbled in over the years. Though that approach has been less common of late, it’s a tool that can be helpful in a tight funding climate, as these deals can guarantee returns when they’re harder to secure via initial public offerings or traditional buyouts.
The SixPeaks acquisition hands AstraZeneca research on obesity medicines designed to preserve the kind of muscle mass that can be lost when people take drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound. The medicines it’s been working on target so-called activin receptors, an approach that’s shown the potential to maintain muscle while cutting fat.
Though AstraZeneca doesn’t sell any obesity treatments, it’s long been involved in “incretin” drugs by selling the GLP-1 medicine Bydureon. AstraZeneca has also identified obesity as a potential area to branch out into and, so far, has inked a few deals with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and China-based biotech Eccogene. The company has three drugs for obesity and weight management in Phase 2 testing.
AstraZeneca’s “drive, interest, capability and motivation to win in this race was extremely strong,” said Alex Mayweg, a managing director at Versant who chaired SixPeaks’ board, at the time of the startup’s launch.
AstraZeneca isn’t alone in pursuing obesity drug prospects. Several of its peers have added some to their pipelines through licensing deals or acquisitions.
Muscle-preserving drugs like the ones SixPeaks is advancing have proven difficult to develop so far, however. Eli Lilly recently halted a trial for one drug prospect, and testing of another from BioAge Labs was halted following safety concerns. The Food and Drug Administration has signaled those drugs need to show weight loss benefits too, indicating higher clearance standards.
