Regeneron licenses a Phase 3-ready GLP-1/GIP agonist from Hansoh Pharma

Regeneron has licensed a GLP-1/GIP dual receptor agonist from China's Hansoh Pharma, paying $80 million upfront with up to about $1.93 billion in later milestone payments. The deal, struck in June 2025, gives Regeneron rights to the drug everywhere except mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau ^[1].

The candidate is described as ready to enter Phase 3 testing, the final and largest stage of clinical trials before a company can file for approval. That makes it one of the more advanced obesity assets to change hands in 2025. The specific weight-loss results behind the drug, the trial designs Regeneron plans to run, and a possible timeline for a US filing have not been reported.

A new direction for Regeneron

Until this deal, Regeneron's obesity work centered on a different idea: antibodies designed to protect muscle while people lose weight. That approach targets a well-known criticism of GLP-1 drugs, which is that a meaningful share of the weight people lose is lean tissue rather than fat. Adding an incretin — the drug class that includes semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy, Rybelsus) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound) — gives Regeneron a backbone medicine it could eventually pair with its own muscle-sparing antibodies, rather than relying on a competitor's product.

The mechanism is familiar territory. Tirzepatide also hits both the GLP-1 and GIP receptors, and Roche's CT-388 is another GLP-1/GIP dual agonist in development ^[1]. What is less common is a large US biotech buying into the category this late in a candidate's development, and doing it at a relatively modest upfront price.

How it compares with other 2025 deals

The $80 million upfront is small next to the year's biggest obesity transactions. In March, Roche agreed to a $5.3 billion collaboration with Zealand Pharma on petrelintide, a once-weekly amylin analog, with $1.65 billion paid upfront, $1.2 billion in development milestones tied largely to starting Phase 3 monotherapy trials, and $2.4 billion in sales milestones. Roche and Zealand will split US and European profits and losses 50/50 and plan to test petrelintide both alone and combined with CT-388 ^[1].

Also in March, AbbVie licensed Gubra's once-weekly amylin analog GUB014295, then in Phase 1, for $350 million upfront and up to $1.875 billion in milestones ^[1]. Novo Nordisk paid for a "triple G" drug from The United Laboratories in a roughly $2 billion deal for UBT251, which targets GLP-1, GIP and glucagon receptors and produced average weight loss of 15.1% from baseline at the highest 6 mg subcutaneous dose in a Phase 1b trial ^[1]. Novo also signed a $2.2 billion agreement with Septerna in May to discover oral small-molecule drugs aimed at GLP-1, GIP and glucagon receptors, and Eli Lilly struck a $1.3 billion AI-driven discovery pact with Superluminal Medicines ^[1].

Why it matters for patients

None of this changes what is on pharmacy shelves today. A Phase 3-ready drug typically needs years of large trials, then regulatory review, before a US patient could get a prescription.

The longer-term significance is competition. Right now, the injectable incretin market in the US is essentially a two-company market, which has contributed to high list prices and, at times, supply shortages. More approved options in the same class would give prescribers and insurers alternatives, and would give drugmakers a reason to compete on price, tolerability and convenience. Regeneron's combined interest in incretins and muscle preservation also points toward a possible future where weight-loss regimens are judged not only by pounds lost but by what kind of tissue is lost — a question that current labels do not address.

What happens next

The next concrete signal would be Regeneron starting Phase 3 trials and registering them publicly, along with any decision to test the licensed drug alongside its muscle-preservation antibodies. Neither a trial start date nor a target filing date has been disclosed.