SixPeaks, a new obesity biotech, starts up with an option to sell to AstraZeneca

2024-05-22

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A new obesity drug developer from investment firm Versant Ventures is starting up with a deal to possibly sell itself to AstraZeneca.

The startup, called SixPeaks Bio, launched Wednesday with $30 million in Series A funding led by Versant and involving AstraZeneca. Alongside the funding, the company also announced a collaboration that will see the British drugmaker provide up to $80 million in financing over the next two years. Over that time, AstraZeneca has an exclusive chance to buy SixPeaks at an agreed-upon price once the biotech is ready to bring its lead drug into human testing.

SixPeaks is the product of Basel, Switzerland-based Ridgeline Discovery, one of a few initiatives Versant has hatched over the years to turn academic research into new companies. The company was formed to address what CEO Philip Larsen called a “burgeoning problem” for popular weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound. While those medicines help people quickly shed pounds, lean muscle tissue is lost as well. That issue can be exacerbated by people starting and stopping treatment, “which is likely to accelerate the unfavorable effect on body composition,” he said.

SixPeaks is one of a number of companies — among them Regeneron, Biohaven Pharmaceutical and startup BioAge — focused on preserving muscle mass. The company is making antibody drugs that, like some others in development, target so-called activin receptors, an approach that’s shown the potential to maintain muscle while cutting fat.

SixPeaks said its drugs may be effective as monotherapies or alongside the “incretin” drugs that stimulate the gut hormones like GLP-1. It’s also developing a conjugated medicine that combines both approaches, though none are yet in human testing.

Larsen declined to share more specifics about SixPeaks' pipeline, but said the company has the ”opportunity to reach quite broadly and not just focus on being the companion to GLP-1s.”

The deal follows a strategy Versant once favored, in which it would create a startup alongside a prearranged acquisition deal with a specific buyer. These types of “build-to-buy,” or option deals were tools Versant and some other venture firms used to guarantee returns during a tough investment climate early last decade. But they come with trade-offs, locking a startup into a deal with potentially smaller financial upside than independent growth may offer. In some cases, an acquisition doesn’t occur, forcing a young biotech to chart a new course.

Versant has moved away from such arrangements since, but they've still been done in recent years, such as with Novartis' recent buyout of IFM Due and Takeda’s acquisition of Maverick Therapeutics in 2021.

According to Alex Mayweg, a managing director at Versant and chair of SixPeaks’ board, the company wrestled with which path to pursue after receiving early and intense interest from investors as well as pharmaceutical companies. “We had options. This space is attracting a lot of attention,” he said.

But Larsen noted the “huge” costs associated with developing cardiovascular drugs, making it critical to execute a a clinical development plan with precision from the start, and getting a partnership “fairly early.”

AstraZeneca’s “drive, interest, capability and motivation to win in this race was extremely strong,” Mayweg added.

The British drugmaker aims to come from behind in that race, as its most advanced prospects are progressing towards mid-stage testing. But the company has circled cardiometabolic research as a key part of its goal to hit $80 billion in revenue by 2030, and last year, made its intentions clear by licensing an oral obesity drug from Chinese biotech Eccogene.

In an investor presentation on Tuesday, AstraZeneca pointed to a number of potential drug combinations for its oral drug and a couple others in development. None of them, though, involved muscle preservation.

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