There’s a new biotech company on Nasdaq. And they’re coming after the enormous opportunity of developing drugs for weight loss.
What’s happening:
- Clinical stage biopharmaceutical company BioAge Labs (NASDAQ: BIOA) has officially listed on the Nasdaq after successfully raising $198M USD in their IPO at $18 per share
The big idea:
- BioAge Labs primary drug candidate is Azelaprag which mimics the activity of the exerkine apelin, a peptide that gets released through exercise
- One of the unique aspects of Azelaprag is its ability to help retain muscle mass, which is a common side effect with popular rapid weight loss therapeutics
Why it matters:
- Biotech companies have been raising record breaking amounts of venture capital funding to develop next generation therapeutics for obesity and weight loss following the breakout success of Ozempic which is produced by Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO)
Going deeper:
- BioAge Labs plans to begin clinical trails that validate Azelaprag in combination with popular weight loss drugs Zepbound and Wegovy to prove that Azelaprag is an effective therapeutic to take in combination with other obesity drugs
The intrigue:
- Finding new breakthroughs for weight loss and obesity drugs has even led Novo Nordisk to commit hundreds of millions of dollars to quantum computing startups to leverage quantum computing technology to accelerate the discovery of new potential therapeutic compounds
