American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has filed a lawsuit in the Delaware state court against the biotech company Metsera, its board of directors, and Danish Novo Nordisk, accusing them of violating a merger agreement. This was reported on Pfizer's website.
The subject of the dispute is the biotech startup Metsera, which is developing an experimental drug MET-097i for weight loss.
Pfizer planned to acquire Metsera, but its offer was interrupted at the last moment by the Danish company Novo Nordisk, which already controls a significant portion of the market thanks to Ozempic and Wegovy.
Pfizer, for which the deal with Metsera was an opportunity to enter the billion-dollar weight loss market, accused Novo Nordisk of attempting to stifle competition.
The drug MET-097i, which sparked the dispute, is an injectable obesity treatment that can be administered just once a month (unlike, for example, Wegovy, which is administered weekly).
In September 2025, the company announced extremely positive results from phase 2b clinical trials. Participants in the studies lost an average of up to 14.1% of their weight over 28 weeks (compared to placebo), with some individuals losing up to 26.5%. Weight loss continued without signs of a plateau.
Unlike existing GLP-1 class drugs, MET-097i demonstrated minimal side effects – diarrhea at placebo levels, nausea only in 13% of patients beyond placebo.
The global market for obesity treatments is experiencing explosive growth and is valued at tens of billions of dollars annually. Novo Nordisk currently dominates this market with semaglutide drugs (Ozempic, Wegovy), while American Eli Lilly competes with tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound).
