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Structure’s GLP-1 pill shows “best-in-class” weight loss & Unnatural Products raises $45M Series B

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Joachim Eeckhout & Eduardo Longoria
March 17, 2026

Good morning! A new Europe-focused analysis shows cancer incidence rose nearly 60% between 1995 and 2022, while annual deaths stayed broadly flat at around 1.3–1.4 million per year. A big reason: biotech. From 1995 to 2024, the EMA approved 194 new cancer medicines and 318 additional indications, with approval velocity jumping from roughly one new drug a year in the late 1990s to about 14 annually in 2021–2024.

Why it matters: Targeted therapies, immunotherapies, ADCs, bispecifics, CAR-Ts, and biomarker-guided treatment have changed the economics of cancer survival, with several cancer types now having five-year survival rates above 90% in the best-performing European countries.

Yes, but: Europe’s next cancer problem will be about access. In some countries, reimbursement is fast. In others, patients are waiting years.

Bottom line: Biotech has moved cancer care forward; now, Europe has to make sure patients can actually reach it.

— Joachim E.

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SNAPSHOT

Structure’s GLP-1 pill shows “best-in-class” weight loss in mid-stage obesity trial

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Structure Therapeutics reported Phase 2 trial results showing its oral GLP-1 drug aleniglipron helped people with obesity lose up to 15% of body weight over 44 weeks, suggesting it could compete with leading treatments from Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk.

Why it matters: Obesity drugs are one of the fastest-growing pharmaceutical markets. If aleniglipron delivers injectable-like results in a pill, it could expand treatment access and intensify competition with drugs like Lilly’s orforglipron and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill.

Backstory: Injectable GLP-1 weight-loss drugs have been on the market for nearly nine years and became so popular that supply at times fell short of demand. Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill, launched in early January, reached 57,000 U.S. prescriptions by mid-February, making it one of the fastest-growing drug launches in history.

Big picture: The success of oral GLP-1 drugs could reshape the obesity market by making treatment easier to prescribe and use. Several major pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, Merck, and Eli Lilly, are investing heavily in pill versions of these therapies.

Zoom in: The Phase 2 study enrolled 73 participants who were overweight or obese plus had a related condition (e.g., heart disease). 61 patients received aleniglipron, while 12 received a placebo. Doses increased gradually from 5 mg to 120 mg over 20 weeks, with some patients later escalating to 180 mg or 240 mg. After 44 weeks, patients on 240 mg lost ~15% of body weight, patients on 180 mg lost ~15.3%, while the placebo group gained 1.1% on average.

What’s next: Structure plans to meet with the FDA in Q2 2026 to discuss the design of a pivotal Phase 3 trial expected to start later this year. Lilly’s competing oral drug orforglipron could receive FDA approval within weeks, signaling a rapidly intensifying race in oral obesity treatments.

SNIPPETS

What’s happening in biotech today?

💰Macro demand: Unnatural Products (UNP) has raised $45M in a Series B round led by The Venture Collective, with participation from argenx, Droia Ventures, and existing investors including Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Artis Ventures, and First Spark Ventures, to expand its macrocyclic peptide platform and advance its pipeline targeting cardiometabolic, inflammatory, and immunological diseases. The company’s discovery platform combines computational design, automated chemistry, and high-throughput biological testing to engineer synthetic macrocyclic peptides that can bind complex intracellular targets and potentially enable oral therapies. The funding aims to accelerate programs toward clinical trials and follows a recent licensing deal with Novartis worth up to $1.7B in potential milestones.

🧲 Glue money: Ternary Therapeutics, a London-based biotech startup, has raised €4.1M in seed funding led by daphni, with participation from Pace Ventures, i&i Biotech Fund, and Future Planet Capital, to advance its AI-driven platform for designing molecular glue drugs targeting inflammatory and neuroinflammatory diseases. Molecular glues are small molecules that bring proteins together to trigger degradation of disease-causing targets, a field within targeted protein degradation that has historically relied on serendipitous discovery. Ternary aims to systematize this process using a platform that integrates physics-informed AI, molecular dynamics, and rapid experimental validation in iterative design cycles. Founded in October 2024, the company already reports a preclinical pipeline in immunological disorders.

✂️ Deal axed: Astellas Pharma has ended its 2020 partnership with CytomX Therapeutics to develop Probody-based T-cell engager bispecific therapies for solid tumors, terminating a deal that originally included $80M upfront and up to $1.6B in potential milestone payments. CytomX disclosed in its latest earnings report that Astellas decided not to advance the remaining preclinical assets from the collaboration, bringing the six-year partnership to a close despite earlier progress that triggered $10M in milestone payments in 2024. The termination adds to recent setbacks for CytomX, including Bristol Myers Squibb exiting part of another partnership in 2024, though the biotech continues collaborations with companies such as Amgen, Regeneron, and Moderna while focusing resources on its lead antibody-drug conjugate, varsetatug masetecan, for metastatic colorectal cancer.

📉 Stock slide: Idorsia’s shares fell more than 10% after CEO Srishti Gupta, abruptly stepped down less than a year after taking the role in July 2025, with the company and Gupta stating only that the decision was mutual and providing no further explanation. Board chairman and co-founder Jean-Paul Clozel, will oversee day-to-day operations while the Swiss biotech searches for a new chief executive. The leadership change comes during a period of improving financial performance for Idorsia, which markets the insomnia drug Quviviq and hypertension treatment Tryvio and reported 2025 revenue of 221 million Swiss francs ($265M) while sharply reducing its operating loss. The company is also advancing pipeline programs, including lucerastat for Fabry disease and several immunology candidates.

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