{"id":3519,"date":"2026-10-19T17:22:49","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T17:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/?p=3519"},"modified":"2026-10-19T17:22:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T17:22:49","slug":"roche-partners-with-rona-therapeutics-to-develop-new-obesity-treatment-with-1-06-billion-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/roche-partners-with-rona-therapeutics-to-develop-new-obesity-treatment-with-1-06-billion-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Roche Partners with Rona Therapeutics to Develop New Obesity Treatment with $1.06 Billion Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roche, a leading pharmaceutical company, has agreed to pay up to $1.06 billion to Rona Therapeutics for the rights to develop a new type of obesity<\/a> treatment called ALK7. Unlike current treatments that mainly work by reducing appetite and calorie intake, ALK7 targets fat tissue directly. It aims to safely reduce harmful fat around organs (visceral fat) while preserving muscle mass, which could lead to better and longer-lasting weight loss results. <\/p>\n

Boris Za\u00eftra, who leads business development at Roche, shared his excitement about the partnership, saying, ‘We are thrilled to work with Rona Therapeutics. This agreement strengthens our existing efforts to create advanced treatments for metabolic diseases like obesity, heart<\/a> disease, and kidney<\/a> disease.’ <\/p>\n

Under the agreement, Roche will pay Rona up to $100 million upfront, with additional payments based on progress, plus future royalties. Stella Shi, CEO of Rona Therapeutics, explained why this partnership matters: ‘Obesity is a serious, long-term health issue, and there\u2019s a great need for new treatments that can help people lose weight effectively and sustainably. ALK7 works differently from other obesity drugs by focusing on fat tissue itself, which could make it a valuable option for patients.’ <\/p>\n

Rona Therapeutics specializes in a cutting-edge technology called extrahepatic RNAi, which helps develop therapies that act outside the liver. Roche brings its strong global experience in developing and bringing medicines to market, especially for obesity and metabolic diseases. Together, they hope to make this new treatment available to patients worldwide. <\/p>\n

This deal is part of a growing trend where major companies are investing heavily in new obesity treatments. Just recently, Genentech (a Roche company) made another big deal for a different obesity drug that works without targeting appetite hormones. Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk, another key player in the field, has recently rebranded to strengthen its focus on obesity and metabolic health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roche, a leading pharmaceutical company, has agreed to pay up to $1.06 billion to Rona Therapeutics for the rights to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pharmaceutical-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3519"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3527,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3519\/revisions\/3527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}