AbbVie is the latest potential weight reduction drug player

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The booming weight reduction drug market has gained a recent potential competitor. 

AbbVie said on Monday that it would pay as much as $2.2 billion to develop Danish drugmaker Gubra’s experimental obesity drug, marking its late foray into the segment. 

Under the terms of the deal, the pharmaceutical giant can pay Gubra $350 million upfront. AbbVie may also pay up to almost $1.9 billion if the drug meets certain development and sales milestones. 

Gubra, which provides pre-clinical contract research and peptide-based drug discovery services, shall be eligible to receive certain royalties on global net sales of the drug, called GUB014295. Shares OF Gubra closed 15% higher on Monday after the licensing agreement was announced. 

Here’s what’s essential to know concerning the medicine: It’s an injection that mimics amylin, a unique gut hormone than the present obesity drugs available on the market goal. 

Amylin prompts signals to the brain that suppress appetite and reduce food intake, in line with AbbVie. The hormone also slows so-called gastric emptying, or the method by which the contents of the stomach are moved into the small intestine.

Novo Nordisk‘s blockbuster obesity treatment Wegovy mimics a hormone called GLP-1 to tamp down appetite and regulate blood sugar, while Eli Lilly‘s own drug Zepbound targets each GLP-1 and one other hormone called GIP. 

Just a few corporations, including Novo Nordisk, Zealand Pharma, AstraZeneca and Structure Therapeutics, are developing products that focus on amylin. A few of those drugs are further along in development than Gubra’s medicine, comparable to Zealand’s petrelintide, however it remains to be too early to know which one is best for weight reduction. 

Some drugmakers consider that targeting amylin could reduce the gastrointestinal unwanted effects typically seen with treatments that focus on GLP-1, and will result in less muscle loss than existing drugs. But those effects should be proven in clinical trials. 

In a research note Monday, BMO analyst Evan Seigerman said “all-in we’re positive on the deal” for AbbVie. He said the corporate’s entrance into the obesity market could “include synergies” to other areas of its business, comparable to inflammation and aesthetics. 

For instance, researchers are studying the inflammatory advantages of obesity drugs for conditions comparable to a serious type of liver disease, cardiovascular outcomes and Alzheimer’s, amongst others, Seigerman wrote. 

“We see a chance for AbbVie to leverage their expertise on this space to higher understand these potential advantages,” he added. 

An obesity drug could also complement AbbVie’s aesthetics business, which offers Botox, other facial injectables, skincare and body contouring, amongst other products, in line with Seigerman. 

Notably, the deal comes as AbbVie looks for its next top-selling drug following the patent expiration for its mega blockbuster autoimmune medicine Humira. 

“Our partnership with Gubra marks our entry into the obesity field, offering a compelling opportunity based on the potential to handle patient needs while also fostering long-term growth for our company,” AbbVie CEO Robert Michael, who took over just over six months ago, said in a press release on Monday. 

The deal, nevertheless, may very well be a “potential negative” for Structure Therapeutics, Seigerman said. 

That biotech company remains to be on the lookout for potential partnerships with large pharmaceutical corporations to further develop and commercialize its experimental GLP-1 and amylin products.

Be at liberty to send any suggestions, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com.

That is Ashley, reporting live from Las Vegas, Nevada! 

I’m here on the bottom on the 2025 HIMSS Global Health Conference and Exhibition, where health care and technology leaders are touting their latest and biggest innovations. The exhibition floor opens up today, but there’s already been a flurry of announcements, primarily around – yes, you guessed it – artificial intelligence. 

Here’s all the pieces it’s good to know to date:

• Microsoft on Monday announced a recent health-care AI assistant called Dragon Copilot that builds on its existing dictation and ambient listening solutions. It’s the corporate’s latest push to face out throughout the fiercely competitive AI scribing market, which has grown immensely lately. Read CNBC’s coverage here. 
• Amazon on Monday said it’s bringing Amazon One to NYU Langone Health, which suggests patients will find a way to envision in for appointments by simply scanning their palm. The service will help NYU Langone speed up the sign-in process and alleviate administrative workloads. Read CNBC’s coverage here.
• Google on Monday announced recent generative AI capabilities in its platform Vertex AI Seek for health care, which allows developers to coach, tune and deploy different AI models and applications. The corporate said Gemini 2.0 is now available as one among the models within the offering, and a recent feature called Visual Q&A will allow doctors to go looking diagrams, tables and charts.
• Salesforce on Friday said it would launch Agentforce for Health, a collection of pre-built actions and skills that can allow providers, payers and others to simply construct AI agents. Agentforce for Health focuses on public health, clinical skills and patient access and services. It comes after Salesforce announced Agentforce, an AI agent service, more broadly in September.
• Wolters Kluwer Health announced this week that the corporate is integrating its medical database UpToDate with Suki’s AI scribing tool and the health-care agent service in Microsoft Copilot Studio. Ideally, this may make it easier for doctors who use these platforms to tug up trusted medical resources more quickly and simply.
• GE HealthCare on Tuesday announced a recent portfolio of cloud imaging software solutions called Genesis. The portfolio includes 4 different offerings that can help providers manage and store large quantities of medical images more easily, the corporate said.

There’s still plenty more to come back this week (assuming I do not get completely lost in The Venetian), so be sure you are maintaining with CNBC’s coverage. I’ll have more on the massive themes and takeaways I hear about over the subsequent few days. 

Be at liberty to send any suggestions, suggestions, story ideas and data to Ashley at ashley.capoot@nbcuni.com.