Pfizer acquires start-up Metsera for $10 billion; know the leaders behind the small biopharma company

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has finally acquired development-stage obesity drugmaker Metsera Inc., in an intense bidding war against the Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk for over $10 billion.

Metsera, a New York City-based three-year-old biopharmaceutical start-up, has no products on the market but has about eight potential next-generation therapies for obesity and metabolic diseases at various stages of development. It employs only about 100 people.

Metsera was founded in 2022 by Population Health Partners and ARCH Venture Partners. Population Health Partners was started by Whit Bernard, a former Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company and Clive Meanwell, who earlier founded the Medicines Company MDCO and sold it to Novartis for $9.7 billion in January 2020.

Whit Bernard is currently the Chief Executive Officer and President at Metsera, and Clive Meanwell is Co-founder and Executive Chairman, who also served as Chief Executive Officer.

After earning a B.A. in Music from Brown University, Whit Bernard (41) spent some time researching music in the former Soviet Union. He returned to the Kellogg School of Management to pursue an MBA and then joined McKinsey & Company as a consultant. He became an Associate Partner at McKinsey, co-led a strategic service line for small-cap, clinical-stage biotech companies, advised major pharmaceutical companies on innovative commercial models, and supported the creation of several private equity-sponsored life sciences strategies.

A biotech, the Medicines Co (MDCO), hired Bernard to advise on business improvement, and thus he met its founder, Clive Meanwell (68), a cancer researcher turned start-up founder. Whit Bernard left McKinsey and joined MDCO as its head of business development.  

Clive, born and brought up in the UK, studied virology and M.D. from the University of Birmingham, and joined multinational drug maker Roche as a cancer research scientist in the 1980s. He later moved to the US for work and founded Medicines Co. (MDCO) in 1997.  MDCO developed successful cardiovascular care products, such as Angiomax (partnering with Biogen on the blood thinner), before shifting to prevalent chronic conditions, such as the high cholesterol drug Leqvio (partnering with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals), which later became a high-selling drug.

In 2019, MDCO was acquired by Novartis for $9.7 billion.

With funds from that sale, the duo founded Population Health Partners, a company investing in research companies in rare therapeutic areas. They started Metsera in 2022, along with two other co-founders—Paul Bearns (managing director of ARCH Venture Partners) and Chris Visioli (Co-founder, Chief Financial Officer & Chief Business Officer).  

In 2023, Metsera acquired a UK biotech research start-up Zihipp, working on obesity and diabetes drugs. Zihipp was developing technologies superior to existing next-generation GLP-1 weight-loss medicines sold by Novo Nordisk and rival Eli Lilly. Zihipp’s founder and executive chairman, Steve Bloom, is currently working as EVP, Research & Development at Metsera.

Metsera is working on experimental drugs like a once-a-month injection for obesity. One of the Phase 2b studies of an experimental drug proved a weight loss of up to 14%. Trade analysts estimate Metsera’s current pipeline could have an annual revenue potential of over $5 billion if these products reach the marketing stage.