Roche to Acquire 89bio for $35 Billion, Boosting Obesity Drug Pipeline

Roche Holding has announced its intention to acquire the biotechnology company 89bio for a maximum of 35 billion dollars. This acquisition aims to enhance Roche's drug development pipeline by adding an experimental treatment for obesity-related liver diseases.

Roche, a Swiss pharmaceutical giant, has been actively seeking to enter the weight loss drug market, which has been a key focus of its recent acquisition activities. Currently, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk lead this market with approved drugs generating tens of billions of dollars in sales. Roche is betting on next-generation treatments and potential combination therapies for related diseases to secure a position in the future market.

89bio, headquartered in San Francisco, has a core asset in its pipeline: a candidate drug for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), a condition primarily caused by obesity.

Roche's CEO stated that the company plans to become a leader in the cardiovascular field, and establishing a presence in the obesity market is crucial to achieving this goal.

Roche revealed on Thursday that the cash offer for 89bio could reach a maximum of 35 billion dollars. This includes a base payment of 14.50 dollars per share upon completion of the transaction, plus an additional performance-based payment of up to 6 dollars per share, depending on the achievement of performance metrics.

This offer represents a significant premium over 89bio's closing price of 8.08 dollars per share on Wednesday. Shortly after the U.S. stock market opened, 89bio's stock price on the Nasdaq surged by 86%. Roche's stock price remained relatively stable during the midday trading session in Europe.

Roche stated that this acquisition will strengthen its product portfolio in the areas of cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic diseases, and open up potential combination therapy options for its existing development projects. The company added that this will also enrich its drug development pipeline for patients with health issues related to obesity or being overweight.

The CEO of Roche highlighted that the obesity treatment market is enormous and is expected to become highly segmented over time. Unlike the current market, the future market will be more patient-centric, aligning with Roche's product portfolio plans for the next few years.

89bio confirmed that this transaction validates the potential of its MASH candidate drug pegozafermin, which is currently in the late stages of clinical trials.

Roche has previously made several moves in the weight loss drug sector. In December 2023, it acquired Carmot Therapeutics for 3.1 billion dollars, a U.S. pharmaceutical company with experimental weight loss drugs in both injectable and oral forms. In March 2025, Roche agreed to acquire the rights to an innovative weight loss therapy from Zealand Pharma for 5.3 billion dollars.

Roche expects the acquisition of 89bio to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2025.