Roche Holding AG is the latest drug maker trying to take advantage of the booming demand for weight-loss drugs.

The Swiss-based pharmaceutical company announced it was buying 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:privately held Carmot Therapeutics Inc. for an upfront payment of $2.7 billion in cash. Carmot shareholders could receive up to $400 million if certain milestones are reached.

Carmot is currently researching three potential 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:weight-loss treatments. The lead asset, CT-388, is an injectable to treat those with or without diabetes that is heading for a Phase 2 study. A p🥀ill in Phase 1 is also for patients with or without diabetes. The third, an injectable in a Phase 2 study, would be for those with Type 1 diabetes. 

Roche noted the existing clinical data for Carmot’s assets, especially CT-388, “suggests a best-in-class potential to achieve and maintain weight loss with differentiated efficacy.” CT-388 works in a similar way to 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Eli Lilly’s (LLY) weight-loss medicines Mounjaro and Zepbound.

Le෴vi Garraway, Roche’s chief medical officer and head of Global Product Development, said Carmot’s broad profile of drugs “offers different routes of administration and opportunities to develop combination therapies that treat obesity and potential🔯ly other indications.”

Roche said the transaction is expected to clos🍰e i𓂃n the first quarter of next year.