Regeneron Inks $2B Deal with Hansoh for Late-Stage Obesity Therapy

Highlights

• Regeneron acquires ex-China rights to Hansoh’s HS-20094 with an $80M upfront payment and potential $1.93B in milestones.
• HS-20094 is a dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist, currently in phase 3 for obesity and phase 2b for diabetes.
• Regeneron aims to combine the new asset with its existing candidates, like trevogrumab and garetosmab, to address obesity and muscle loss.
• Interim results suggest Regeneron's trevogrumab, when combined with semaglutide, helps preserve muscle while promoting fat loss.
• Roche and Merck are also pursuing combination strategies in the obesity treatment space, underlining industry-wide interest.

Strategic Acquisition Targets GLP-1/GIP Drug Rivaling Zepbound

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has signed a major licensing agreement with China-based Hansoh Pharmaceutical, aiming to strengthen its position in the obesity drug market. The agreement, announced on June 2, includes an upfront payment of $80 million and potential milestone payments of up to $1.93 billion. The deal grants Regeneron exclusive rights outside China to HS-20094, a dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist currently in late-stage development.

The candidate drug, HS-20094, is already in a phase 3 trial for obesity and a phase 2b trial for diabetes within China. According to Regeneron, over 1,000 patients have already been treated with the compound. The company stated the asset has a “potentially similar profile” to Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, an already approved GLP-1/GIP agonist.

Addressing Unmet Needs in Obesity Treatment

Regeneron's Chief Scientific Officer George Yancopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., emphasized the significance of the new acquisition: “Despite the transformative impact of recent weight loss therapies, significant unmet needs remain, including the ability to sustain weight loss and maintain muscle mass over time.” He further added, “Securing access to a GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist will increase the versatility of our clinical programs for obesity and accelerate our mission to support quality, sustained weight loss and the associated long-term health benefits.”

Complementing Regeneron’s Existing Obesity Pipeline

The agreement adds momentum to Regeneron’s broader obesity research, which already includes trevogrumab, a GDF8 antibody. In a concurrent announcement, Regeneron disclosed interim results from a phase 2 trial showing that combining trevogrumab with semaglutide—Novo Nordisk’s key ingredient in Wegovy—“helped preserve lean mass while increasing loss of fat mass.”

Other companies are pursuing similar strategies. Roche, for instance, is working on a combination of a dual GLP-1/GIP agonist it acquired from Carmot Therapeutics with its own anti-myostatin antibody to address the muscle-loss challenge often linked to weight reduction.

Future Research and Combination Therapies

Regeneron’s broader obesity pipeline also includes the anti-activin antibody garetosmab. The company aims to explore combination therapies using these proprietary assets. Boaz Hirshberg, M.D., senior vice president for clinical development in internal medicine at Regeneron, stated, “In-licensing a late-stage GLP1/GIP agonist will allow us to study combinations with Regeneron’s proprietary drugs and drug candidates in order to holistically address muscle loss and potentially other comorbidities of obesity, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and liver conditions.”

“This is an exciting development in our obesity work at Regeneron, which also includes the muscle-sparing phase 2 COURAGE study investigating the addition of trevogrumab,” Hirshberg added.

Competitive Landscape and Industry Interest

Regeneron is not the only pharmaceutical company eyeing Hansoh’s obesity portfolio. Merck & Co. made a similar move late last year, paying $112 million upfront for a preclinical GLP-1 candidate from Hansoh, with hopes of unlocking wide-ranging cardiometabolic benefits.