Obesity market news — August 25, 2026
The most important deal of the week was not struck on the GLP-1 track. On August 24 Hanmi Pharmaceutical announced an exclusive licensing agreement with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, for HM17321, a clinical-stage obesity candidate: 190 million dollars upfront, and up to roughly 2.3 billion dollars in total including development, regulatory and commercial milestones plus tiered royalties. The molecule is a urocortin-2 analogue that selectively activates the CRFR2 receptor, which places it entirely outside the incretin pathway. The stated goal matters more than the headline number: weight loss while lean body mass is preserved. Two things should be kept apart. HM17321 is only in Phase 1, there is no measured human efficacy data on it, and the lean-mass claim rests on preclinical work so far; Hanmi will finish the Phase 1 study and Genentech takes over from Phase 2. What is already a matter of fact, however, is that Roche now holds two separate non-incretin, muscle-sparing programmes, this one alongside the amylin analogue petrelintide it co-develops with Zealand Pharma. A large pharmaceutical company has placed two distinct bets on the idea that the best known weakness of the GLP-1 class, the muscle loss that comes with the weight loss, is a market of its own.
The grey market around retatrutide has crossed the US border. On August 18 a warning was issued in Canada about unapproved and illegal retatrutide sales, a week after Lilly filed six lawsuits against US businesses, which we covered in the previous edition. The new element is not the litigation but the order of magnitude: according to an Axios report on August 24, US Customs and Border Protection intercepted more than 690 shipments of illicit GLP-1 drugs in fiscal 2025, but more than 1,400 in July 2026 alone. It is worth stating plainly what this trade is built around: a compound that has not been submitted for approval anywhere, whose Phase 3 trials are still running. A buyer is not getting a cheaper version of an expensive medicine, but a product of unknown origin with no verified active ingredient content.
The retreat in coverage is no longer a forecast but a process described in numbers. According to a marketplace.org report on August 24, six percent of large US employers dropped GLP-1 coverage for weight loss in 2026, and a further five percent or so are weighing the same for 2027. The International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans survey for 2026 found that more than 90 percent of employers cover GLP-1s for diabetes, but only 36 percent also cover them for obesity, and that gap is budgetary rather than medical. Behind it sits the cost curve: GLP-1s account for 11.4 percent of pharmacy claims in 2026, up from 6.9 percent in 2023, and in NFP's employer survey 51 percent named them the single largest driver of rising prescription drug costs. This is the same wall we wrote about on August 11, measured this time from the employer side.
Roche / Genentech + Hanmi Pharmaceutical: Hanmi Pharmaceutical granted Genentech an exclusive worldwide licence, excluding Korea, to research, develop, manufacture and commercialise HM17321. Hanmi receives 190 million dollars upfront, with development, regulatory and commercial milestones plus tiered royalties bringing the potential total to about 2.3 billion dollars; Korean rights stay with Hanmi. HM17321 is a urocortin-2 analogue acting on the CRFR2 receptor, a non-incretin mechanism, and is positioned as a potential first-in-class agent that reduces fat while preserving lean body mass. Hanmi received FDA IND clearance in November 2025 and is running the Phase 1 study in healthy volunteers and people with obesity; Genentech takes over from Phase 2. Reported deal values differ across outlets, from 2.3 to 2.5 billion dollars, because some include different milestone tranches; the 190 million dollar upfront and the roughly 2.3 billion dollar ceiling come from Hanmi's own announcement.
Eli Lilly (LLY): The retatrutide grey market widened beyond the United States. On August 18 a warning was issued in Canada about unapproved and illegal sales of the compound, following the six lawsuits Lilly filed on August 12 against US compounding pharmacies, medical spas and online sellers. Axios reported on August 24 that US Customs and Border Protection seized more than 690 shipments of illicit GLP-1 products in fiscal 2025 and more than 1,400 in July 2026 alone. Retatrutide is a triple GLP-1, GIP and glucagon agonist still in Phase 3; Lilly has said it plans a US BLA submission in the first quarter of 2027, so no regulator has yet reviewed it.
Enveda Biosciences: A third non-incretin story landed in the same week. STAT reported on August 18 that Enveda Biosciences completed a Phase 1 study of ENV-308 in 88 healthy adults with no serious adverse events and no discontinuations or dose interruptions, and is moving to Phase 2. The molecule was found using the company's PRISM machine-learning model and mimics Lac-Phe, a hormone the body releases during intense exercise and after meals. Enveda positions it as maintenance therapy against weight regain after stopping a GLP-1. Two cautions belong with this. Phase 1 measured safety and tolerability, not weight loss, so there is no efficacy figure to quote; and the lean-muscle preservation attached to the drug in coverage comes from preclinical work, not from these 88 people. Taken with the Hanmi and petrelintide programmes, the pattern for the week is clear: the money is moving toward what happens after the weight comes off.
US employer plans / IFEBP / NFP: A marketplace.org report on August 24 collected the current employer coverage picture. Six percent of large employers dropped GLP-1 coverage for weight loss in 2026 and about five percent are considering it for 2027. The IFEBP 2026 survey found more than 90 percent cover GLP-1s for diabetes but only 36 percent for obesity. GLP-1s reached 11.4 percent of pharmacy claims in 2026 against 6.9 percent in 2023, and 51 percent of employers in NFP's survey called them the top driver of drug cost growth. Rather than cutting outright, some employers are redirecting: around 27 percent steer staff to direct-to-consumer platforms and 21 percent to FSA, HSA or HRA funds, which shifts the cost to the employee rather than removing it.
US Medicaid / KFF: The public payer side gives the same picture, and it is older than this week, which is worth stating precisely. California, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and South Carolina all removed adult obesity GLP-1 coverage from Medicaid effective January 1, 2026, cutting the number of states covering obesity indications under fee-for-service from 16 to 13, according to KFF. Pennsylvania saw GLP-1s grow from 5 percent to 22 percent of its Medicaid drug spend in three years; California projected savings above 200 million dollars. Coverage for diabetes and cardiovascular indications remains in place in these states. Running in the other direction, CMS's five-year BALANCE model is meant to widen access, which we covered on August 11. These are not new decisions this week, but they are the backdrop against which the employer numbers above should be read.
Zealand Pharma (ZEAL) + Roche: The Hanmi deal is easier to read alongside Roche's existing amylin position. In its half-year report on August 13, Zealand Pharma confirmed that topline results from the Phase 2 ZUPREME-2 trial of petrelintide in overweight or obesity with type 2 diabetes are due in the second half of 2026, and that it and Roche expect to start registrational Phase 3 trials of petrelintide monotherapy in the same period. Petrelintide is a once-weekly long-acting amylin analogue that has shown double-digit weight reduction with tolerability broadly comparable to placebo, and it is also being developed in a fixed-dose combination with Roche's GLP-1 and GIP dual agonist. We noted a quiet week for Zealand on August 17; these dates were already in the half-year report and we are correcting the record.
Amgen (AMGN): Amgen has discontinued development of AMG 513, its Phase 1 obesity candidate, leaving MariTide as its only obesity programme. The asset had been under an FDA clinical hold from February 2025, later lifted, and the Phase 1 study continues for patients already enrolled. This follows the same pattern as AMG 786, dropped in May 2024. MariTide, a monthly injectable, is in a broad Phase 3 programme covering weight management, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular outcomes, heart failure and obstructive sleep apnea; MARITIME-1 and MARITIME-2 are expected to read out at the start of 2027. Reported in early August, this fell outside our previous editions and we are catching up on it.
Viking Therapeutics (VKTX), Kailera Therapeutics: Elsewhere in the followed field there was no new clinical data this week, only schedule confirmations. Viking's Phase 3 VANQUISH 1 and 2 trials of subcutaneous VK2735 are fully enrolled, Phase 3 of the oral formulation is due to start in the fourth quarter of 2026, and a Phase 1 study of the amylin agonist VK3019 is running. Kailera reported on August 12 that the IND for oral ribupatide is active with the FDA with global Phase 3 obesity trials planned for the first half of 2027, and that the high-dose Phase 2b injectable trial is fully enrolled with data expected in mid-2027. Structure Therapeutics and Altimmune produced no new data or regulatory step this week.