The race to develop new weight problems medication is taking part in out with measures of how a lot and the way shortly sufferers shed weight. Raj Kannan, CEO of startup Alveus Therapeutics, sees the sphere shaping up as a crowded market with me-too medication providing incremental variations. He additionally sees this discipline specializing in the amount reasonably than the standard of weight reduction.
Among the weight sufferers lose is lean mass, which is principally the whole lot else moreover fats. Gastrointestinal unintended effects proceed to be an issue for these medication. These problems lead many sufferers to discontinue remedy, and when that occurs, the burden that returns is fats, not lean mass.
“We needed to resolve the largest unmet want within the market, which isn’t shedding weight,” Kannan mentioned. “You’ve gotten medication as we speak which you can drop some pounds on, so we need to actually provide that. However the place we thought that we have to construct a portfolio is round sustaining that weight reduction, offering higher tolerability and meaningfully higher physique composition advantages.”
Alveus has been quietly researching new weight problems medicines for the previous two years. On Thursday, the Philadelphia- and Copenhagen-based startup revealed $159.8 million in financing to assist a pipeline led by a drug that would rival an weight problems product in late-stage improvement by Amgen.
Alveus’s lead program, ALV-100, targets two receptors, GLP-1 and GIP. These receptors are already addressed in a single drug by an FDA-approved product, the blockbuster drug Zepbound from Eli Lilly. The pharmaceutical large engineered this weekly injectable peptide drug to activate each targets. Against this, the Alveus drug prompts GLP-1 however blocks GIP.
Whether or not to agonize or antagonize GIP as a method to deal with metabolic illness continues to be a matter of debate within the drug R&D neighborhood, however there’s rising momentum within the GIP-blocking camp. Amgen is in late-stage scientific improvement with MariTide, an antibody-peptide conjugate designed to activate the GLP-1 receptor and block the GIP receptor. Helicore Biopharma addresses solely the GIP receptor. After rising from stealth practically a yr in the past backed by $65 million in financing, the startup started Section 1 testing of its antibody GIP antagonist, HCR-188, as a possible remedy for weight problems.
Alveus’s preclinical analysis signifies drugging GLP-1 and GIP collectively are complementary, defending towards weight acquire whereas additionally enhancing the impact on GLP-1, mentioned Alveus Chief Scientific Officer and Head of R&D Jacob Jeppesen. He additionally pointed to the scientific trial information thus far for Amgen’s weight problems drug as additional validation of this method.
“The mixture right here is basically necessary,” Jeppesen mentioned. “After which we have now the scientific information from MariTide suggesting or exhibiting that there’s actually nice synergies between these mechanisms.”
The long-acting antibody part of Amgen’s drug is meant to assist a dosing interval of a month, even perhaps longer. Alveus selected a fusion protein reasonably than a peptide to hit GLP-1 and GIP for sturdiness of impact that permits much less frequent dosing, Jeppesen mentioned. An investor presentation states Alveus is aiming for quarterly dosing. Kannan mentioned the aim is to supply dosing benefits over different weight problems medication and the deliberate Section 2 examine will consider a variety of dosing intervals.
Alveus was based and incubated by New Rhein Healthcare Traders, which offered seed financing for the startup. Jeppesen was Alveus’s first worker, bringing his expertise in diabetes and cardiovascular drug analysis at Novo Nordisk. He was quickly joined by Chief Enterprise & Technique Officer Brian Bloomquist, an 18-year veteran of Eli Lilly. Kannan, who was most just lately CEO of I-Mab, mentioned that reasonably than constructing Alveus round a know-how platform or perhaps a molecule, the startup was tasked with constructing a portfolio that mirrored the place the marketplace for weight problems medication can be sooner or later.
Like many new weight problems medication transferring ahead in scientific improvement, Alveus’s lead asset got here from China. ALV-100 superior so far as Section 1 testing in Australia beneath China-based Gmax Biopharm. Alveus licensed ex-China rights to the drug.
The startup’s internally developed pipeline stems from Jeppesen’s analysis on one other goal, the amylin receptor. Novo Nordisk and Roche are among the many corporations creating amylin-targeting medication, however there are a number of amylin receptors. Jeppesen mentioned analysis in recent times has yielded better understanding of what occurs when every amylin receptor is activated. Alveus’s ALV-200 is a peptide engineered to selectively activate amylin receptor 3, resulting in desired metabolic outcomes reminiscent of satiety and lean mass preservation, he mentioned. The Alveus pipeline additionally features a non-selective oral small molecule designed to focus on amylin and calcitonin receptors.
Alveus’s Sequence A financing was led by New Rhein, Andera Companions, and Omega Funds. The opposite disclosed contributors within the spherical had been Sanofi Capital, Kurma Companions, and Avego BioScience Capital. Kannan mentioned the capital will assist plans for Section 2 testing of ALV-100. By the second half of 2027, Alveus expects to have information that characterizes the molecule and permits the corporate to pick out the Section 3 dose. The capital may also assist the remainder of the pipeline, together with plans to advance ALV-200 to the clinic in mid-2027.
“We constructed a portfolio actually to supply variety and suppleness, which we imagine will actually be the way forward for the weight problems market, focusing in on these unmet wants,” Jeppesen mentioned. “And that’s actually what has been the main target from day one, to construct that portfolio.”
Photograph by Alveus Therapeutics
