ARCH, Medicines Co. veterans raise $290 million for in-licensed obesity drugs

After scouring 200 companies’ pipelines — including a few overlooked pharma shelves — a new company backed by investment firm Population Health Partners and ARCH Venture Partners is launching with one of the most wide-ranging pipelines yet for obesity drug development.

Metsera came out of stealth mode Thursday with $290 million in seed and Series A financing. ARCH and Population Health Partners, which launched in 2020 and has several veterans from Pfizer and The Medicines Company on its team, led the round. F-Prime Capital, GV, Mubadala Capital, Newpath Partners, and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 were also part of the financing.

Metsera has already put that money to work: The New York startup licensed several drug candidates from South Korean biotech D&D Pharmatech, according to Endpoints and Korea Biomedical Review. Altogether, the deal is worth more than 1 trillion Korean won, or $740 million, in licensing fees and milestone payments.

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