Biotech company creator Versant Ventures has launched a new startup with an ambitious plan to combine four different ways of treating obesity into a single drug.
The startup, Pep2Tango Therapeutics, emerged from stealth on Thursday with an unspecified venture financing that Versant managing director Carlo Rizzuto said is in the “double-digit” millions. Rizzuto declined to provide more specifics because Pep2Tango is in discussions with multiple potential partners on a possible deal, he said in an interview with BioPharma Dive.
Pep2Tango is joining one of the most competitive areas of drug research. The striking weight loss benefits and demand for Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound have led to a market opportunity that Wall Street analysts believe can reach $100 billion in the next decade. A gold rush has ensued, with an array of large and small drugmakers working on ways to improve upon Novo and Lilly’s medicines.
Some companies, for instance, have keyed in on the loss of muscle mass that occurs when people take so-called GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound. Others are working on more convenient pills, or different mechanisms or drug combinations that may be more tolerable, last longer or drive more weight loss. Lilly has a drug in testing that targets three gut hormones.
Pep2Tango believes it’s taking the field a step further. The drugs it’s developing simultaneously stimulate four different targets associated with weight control: GLP-1, GIP, amylin and calcitonin receptors. The startup claims preclinical studies of its molecules have shown the potential for higher efficacy than tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Zepbound, through “selective” loss of fat that also preserves muscle.
Cristina Rondinone, Pep2Tango’s CEO, added that a combination therapy could have other advantages, such as lowering manufacturing costs or improving patient adherence. Both are significant issues for the current generation of obesity medicines.
“Our first idea was to develop a tetra-agonist,” she said. “We were, to tell you the truth, bored thinking about a mono agonist, dual agonist or triple.”
Pep2Tango isn’t Versant’s first foray into obesity drug development. Earlier this year, the firm launched SixPeaks Bio alongside a deal to potentially sell the company to AstraZeneca in the future. SixPeaks is specifically focused on medicines that can preserve muscle mass by targeting so-called activin receptors.
“In the case of Pep2Tango, this is clearly a first-in-class approach,” Rizzuto said. “But we also have made investments that we think are best-in-class, and SixPeaks is an example of that.”
Rondinone oversaw cardiometabolic drug development at AstraZeneca before becoming the president of startup Cellarity. Pep2Tango’s Chief Scientific Officer Soumitra Ghosh once led R&D at Amylin Pharmaceuticals, which developed GLP-1 drugs for diabetes.
The startup draws its name from both peptide drugs and the idea that “it takes two to tango,” according to Rondinone. As the national dance of Argentina, where Rondinone grew up, the tango is a symbol of passion she said, and reflects her obsession with developing the best possible obesity treatment.
“You cannot solve the problem with one molecular target or mechanism, we believe that it needs two or more,” Rondinone said.
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- Source: https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/pep2tango-versant-obesity-drug-startup-glp-1-versant/733556/