The news: Pfizer agreed to pay as much as $7.3 billion to acquire anti-obesity drugmaker Metsera.

Why it matters: Pharma companies want a piece of the lucrative weight loss drug market, which Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly currently corner.

Pfizer’s acquisition comes after multiple failed efforts to penetrate the weight loss drug space.

• The company earlier this year ended development of its once-daily weight loss pill, danuglipron, after a trial participant experienced a liver injury that the drug may have caused.
• Pfizer also discontinued a twice-daily oral candidate in 2023 due to tolerability issues experienced by clinical trial patients.

Pfizer said that acquiring Metsera will add four clinical-stage programs to its pipeline, including oral and injectable candidates. Among the targets that Metsera scooped up through licensing and acquisition deals are GLP-1 drugs (including a monthly weight loss shot as opposed to Novo and Lilly’s weekly injection) and an alternative hormone called amylin that may have fewer gastrointestinal side effects than GLP-1s.

Our take: Pfizer has struggled to convince investors of a strategic vision following waning demand for its COVID-19 treatments. The company recognizes it must be present in the fast-growing obesity drug market and is buying its way in after unsuccessful attempts at internal development.

But Pfizer is far behind Novo and Lilly, and is competing against several other drugmakers with obesity treatments in the pipeline. Pfizer should resist getting into the clinical trial face-offs that will position one of its weight loss drugs vs. Novo’s or Lilly’s, since these established players’ products are already widely accepted by patients and doctors as the best options on the market. Pfizer will instead want to find its niche in an underexplored area of weight loss treatments, such as marketing its monthly shot (pending trial results) as ideal for people who don't want to inject themselves weekly or take a pill every day.

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