Pfizer to Buy Weight-Loss Drug Developer Metsera for Up to $7.3 Billion — Update

By Colin Kellaher

Pfizer has agreed to pay up to $7.3 billion for weight-loss drug developer Metsera in a deal that gets the New York drugmaker back into the burgeoning market for obesity drugs.

Pfizer on Monday said it will pay an initial $47.50 a share, or about $4.9 billion, for Metsera, a nearly 43% premium to Friday's closing price of $33.32 for the New York company.

The deal, slated to close by the end of the year, includes up to an additional $22.50 a share tied to milestones that could bring the total consideration to $70 a share, more than double Friday's closing price.

Pfizer, which earlier this year scrapped its experimental weight-loss pill danuglipron over concerns about potential liver damage, said the Metsera acquisition adds four clinical-stage programs to its pipeline, including oral and injectable drug candidates.

Albert Bourla, Pfizer's chief executive, in April said ending the development of danuglipron was the right decision and pledged that the company would continue to build its obesity pipeline, both through internal programs and through partnerships or acquisitions.

The weight-loss market has been a boon for Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, which have raked in billions of dollars from the blockbuster injectable drugs Wegovy and Zepbound,

Drugmakers are now racing to develop weight-loss pills, which would be easier and less expensive to make that the more complex injectables and more appealing to consumer who don't like needles.

Shares of Metsera, which went public in January at $18, were recently up 58% to $52.66 in premarket trading, while shares of Pfizer were up 1.6% to $24.42.

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 22, 2025 07:51 ET (11:51 GMT)