Karen Leigh, Madison Muller and Damian Garde

(Bloomberg) — Pfizer Inc. will pay $4.9 billion for the obesity startup Metsera Inc. in a bid to catch up to rival drugmakers after failing to compete with its own weight-loss medications.

The US drugmaker agreed to buy Metsera for $47.50 in cash per share, and further payments of up to $22.50 per share if three specific and regulatory milestones are met, it said Monday, with a total potential value of $7.3 billion.

Pfizer is in the process of rebuilding in the aftermath of the pandemic, as demand wanes for its vaccine and pill for Covid and some of the company’s key drugs near the end of their patent life. The company’s efforts to improve its dimming sales growth prospects with an obesity medicine have largely flopped, leaving the pharma gia

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