$200 Million Cash Up Front for a Triple-G Agonist
Novo Nordisk went shopping this week and brought home a super-early-phase triple-G agonist for the low low price of $200 million in cash up front. On top of that, Novo will pay another $1.8 billion plus royalties if all goes well.
That’s a tidy sum to pay for rights to a drug – UBT251 – which has only been studied in 36 patients in China. But then again, it is one of a very few drugs for obesity that might successfully target three metabolic peptide hormone receptors: GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon.
A Chance to Catch Up
Only one drug in this class – retatrutide from Lilly – has reached advanced stages of development. Lilly expects to report pivotal phase 3 study results with retatrutide this year. Phase 2 results with retatrutide, presented in 2023, were nothing short of spectacular.
By contrast, Novo had high hopes for CagriSema, but when the company released phase 3 results recently, investors were underwhelmed. So to keep up an image of leadership in obesity, it is no wonder that Novo was ready to pay a premium for this tantilizing triple-G agonist. They purchased global rights to market the drug everywhere in the world except China from a small Chinese company called United Biotechnology.
Unpublished Phase 1 Results
In the clinical trial United Biotech just completed in January, the company studied three different doses: 1, 3, and 5 mg weekly by subcutaneous injection. Their randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled trial enrolled a total of 36 patients. Though this study was not a test of efficacy, the results were comparable to what retatrutide yielded in phase 2. After 12 weeks, patients at the highest dose lost 15% of their starting body weight. For the primary outcome of safety and tolerability, United Biotech reports:
“The safety profile was consistent with incretin-based therapies. The most common adverse events were gastrointestinal and the vast majority were mild to moderate in severity.”
Of course, these results do not come from a detailed and peer-reviewed publication. They are just a summary from the company that conducted it in China.
So in short, the guiding principle for this transaction is simple. Pay your money and take your chances. The stakes are high in obesity drug development.
Click here for the press release on this deal and here for further reporting on it. For the summary of phase 1 results on UBT251, click here. Finally, you can find more on multi-agonist peptides for diabetes and obesity here.
Design for the Bill of 50 Crowns, painting by Koloman Moser / WikiArt
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March 28, 2025
