Roche Holding AG has agreed to buy Carmot Therapeutics Inc, the developer of a new kind of weight-loss treatment that is the hottest commodity in the pharmaceutical industry, in a deal that could eventually push the Swiss drugmaker into competition with European rival Novo Nordisk A/S.
Roche agreed to pay as much as US$3.1 billion for three clinical-stage assets in obesity and diabetes, with an initial payment of US$2.7 billion and additional milestones of up to US$400 million, the company said in a statement on Monday.
Although Carmot’s drugs are still in the early stages of development, the deal could lead to a competitor to the likes of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly & Co’s Zepbound, which are fueling the growth of a weight-loss market estimated to reach US$100 billion by the end of the decade.
Photo: Reuters
Roche is joining a race by global pharmaceutical giants to get into that business, with Pfizer Inc also developing a new weight-loss drug and AstraZeneca PLC signing a licensing deal with Chinese drug developer Eccogene Inc (誠益生物) for a pill to treat obesity.
Among Carmot’s financial backers is Horizons Ventures Ltd (維港投資), the private investment arm of tycoon Li Ka-shing (李嘉誠), Hong Kong’s richest person, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index shows.
Carmot’s lead asset is a treatment for obesity in patients with and without Type-2 diabetes. Injected subcutaneously once per week, it has potential as a standalone and combination therapy to improve weight loss and be expanded to other indications, Roche said.
Upon closing the deal, Roche would obtain all of Berkeley, California-based Carmot’s clinical and preclinical assets. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of next year.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
RSS