(Reuters) -Weight-loss drug developer Metsera, backed by ARCH Venture Partners, revealed a wider loss in its paperwork for a U.S. initial public offering on Friday.
The terms of the IPO were not disclosed in the filing.
Strong equity markets, falling interest rates and hopes of a friendlier regulatory environment under the incoming Trump administration have given a push to companies looking to list their shares.
Metsera, founded in 2022 by venture capital firm ARCH Venture and investment firm Population Health Partners, revealed a net loss of $156.26 million in the first nine months of 2024, compared to a loss of $34.18 million in the same period in 2023.
The New York City-based biotech firm is developing injectable and oral drugs to treat obesity, based on the GLP-1 mechanism and other biological targets.
The company will use the proceeds from the IPO to advance into the next stage of clinical trials for its most advanced product candidate, MET-097i, an injectable. The remainder will be used for working capital and other general purposes.
The weight-loss drug market, which is estimated by analysts to reach at least $150 billion by the early 2030s, has boomed globally with several companies vying for a share of the pie.
This attractive market has also whetted investor appetite, with the strong reception of BioAge and MBX Biosciences last year.
In 2023, the World Health Organization decided not to add GLP-1 drugs to its essential medicines list, a catalog of the items that should be available in all functioning health systems.
However, another application has been lodged for the agency to reconsider their inclusion in the 2025 list update, a spokesperson told Reuters in December.
The company raised $290 million in funding last year, with participation from firms such as SoftBank and Mubadala Capital.
Metsera intends to list its shares on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol “MTSR”.
BofA Securities, Goldman Sachs, Evercore ISI, Guggenheim Securities and Cantor are the underwriters for the offering.
(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
