Pfizer is Positioned to Be a Leader in the Next Wave of Obesity Treatment: A Q&A with Dr. Jim List, Pfizer’s Chief Internal Medicine Officer

In recent years, there has been an increasing awareness of the complexity and seriousness of obesity, a condition expected to impact one billion people globally by 2030¹ and associated with as many as 200 comorbidities². Due to the burden obesity places on the world’s healthcare system, every advancement in treating this condition has the potential to benefit both patients and economies at global scale. 

The rapidly growing $100 billion-plus obesity market is on track to become one of the largest within biopharma. While there are several successful medicines available today, significant unmet need remains – and there is a clear opportunity for companies to deliver differentiated products that could provide meaningful benefits to patients.

This is the backdrop for Pfizer’s recently completed acquisition of Metsera, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company accelerating the next generation of medicines for obesity and cardiometabolic diseases. This marks a major milestone for our business, as the addition of this promising portfolio gives us the potential to reshape the future of the obesity treatment landscape.

The Metsera acquisition builds on Pfizer’s internal expertise in the mechanisms of cardiometabolic diseases and its strong drug discovery capabilities, which led to the initial discovery of small molecule GLP-1 candidates. Following the Metsera deal, Pfizer continues to pursue opportunities to complement and strengthen our cardiometabolic portfolio, such as our recently announced exclusive global collaboration and license agreement with YaoPharma for the development, manufacturing and commercialization of a small molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist.

As we approach one month since welcoming Metsera’s pipeline, platform and colleagues to Pfizer, we sat down with Dr. Jim List, Pfizer’s Chief Internal Medicine Officer, to get his perspective on the acquisition – why it matters, what it unlocks, and how he sees Metsera transforming our work in Internal Medicine. 

Dr. Jim List: Pfizer has been incredibly thoughtful and intentional about our expansion in the obesity space. Before aligning on Metsera, we took a disciplined, data-driven approach to assessing a wealth of business development opportunities – evaluating strategic fit, product quality and potential for long-term value creation. We want to invest in innovative science and promising assets that support our goal of accelerating and bringing breakthroughs to patients around the world. 

With this acquisition, we added a portfolio of high-potential therapeutic candidates and combinations, with several promising programs currently in clinical and preclinical development. Pending clinical trial and regulatory success, we believe this portfolio offers the potential to reshape the obesity treatment landscape by bringing innovative products to patients and delivering attractive returns to our shareholders. 

Dr. Jim List: The Metsera portfolio is highly differentiated, driven by proprietary peptide platforms that we believe can bring real innovation and advances to the obesity segment with four programs already in clinical trials and additional pre-clinical assets. Notably, we’ve added several GLP-1- and amylin-based therapies to complement and transform our Internal Medicine pipeline, including:

• MET-097i, a weekly and monthly injectable GLP-1 receptor agonist about to begin Phase 3 development
• MET-233i, a monthly amylin analog candidate being evaluated as monotherapy and in combination with MET-097i in Phase 1 development
• Oral GLP-1 receptor agonist and injectable GIPR agonist candidates in Phase 1 development

From MET-097i, for example, Metsera has reported promising data that indicate potential for best-in-class efficacy, improved tolerability and flexible monthly dosing – attractive findings in a quickly evolving category. 

Dr. Jim List: Earlier this year, Pfizer streamlined its R&D function to form a fully integrated organization spanning targeted product discovery, clinical development, global regulatory operations and medical affairs. This integrated structure provides global scale and efficiency with minimal handoffs, and we believe this is the engine to help accelerate the development of Metsera’s differentiated science.

Since joining the company back in March, I’ve been incredibly impressed with our breadth of capabilities and depth of scientific expertise. It fills me with confidence in the direction of our Internal Medicine pipeline and our ability to deliver meaningful solutions for patients. 

Looking ahead to potential future product launches, we also see the opportunity to differentiate through Pfizer's commercial strength, where we have a proven track record of entering competitive markets and emerging as a leader – including specific experience pioneering and growing cardiometabolic markets. It’s this unified set of end-to-end capabilities that makes us confident in our ability to win in obesity.

Dr. Jim List: We expect the next 12 months will be catalyst-rich with important data readouts for several of Metsera’s assets. We anticipate Metsera’s pipeline could deliver a series of potential launches beginning as early as 2028, subject to clinical and regulatory success.