New Alliance Targets a Safer, More Durable Weight Loss Therapy

ZURICH & PHILADELPHIA – January 15, 2026 – In a strategic move poised to challenge the booming multi-billion-dollar obesity drug market, Swiss technology firm InterAx Biotech and US-based Alveus Therapeutics have announced a research and licensing agreement. The collaboration aims to develop a novel small molecule therapy for metabolic disease, promising durable weight loss with superior tolerability compared to current market leaders.

This partnership merges InterAx's sophisticated Deep Signal™ discovery platform, which leverages artificial intelligence to design drugs with precise cellular effects, with Alveus's deep clinical and R&D expertise in metabolic disorders. While the financial terms were not disclosed, the deal includes an upfront payment to InterAx, with eligibility for substantial future payments tied to development, regulatory, and commercial milestones.

Beyond the Current Boom: The Quest for a Better Obesity Drug

The landscape of weight loss treatment has been dramatically reshaped by GLP-1 receptor agonists like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound. These blockbuster injectables have demonstrated unprecedented efficacy, fueling a market projected to exceed $100 billion by the next decade. Yet, their success has also illuminated significant limitations and unmet patient needs.

A primary challenge is tolerability. A substantial number of patients on current GLP-1 therapies experience persistent and often debilitating gastrointestinal side effects, such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, which can lead to treatment discontinuation. Furthermore, the impressive weight loss often comes at a cost: a portion of it is lean muscle mass, which is critical for long-term metabolic health.

Perhaps the most significant issue is the durability of the results. Studies and clinical observations show that when patients stop taking these medications, they often regain a significant amount of the lost weight. This reality positions obesity as a chronic condition requiring continuous, long-term management, creating a pressing need for therapies that are not only effective but also safe and tolerable for prolonged use.

The InterAx-Alveus collaboration is aimed squarely at these shortcomings. By focusing on a “differentiated small molecule candidate,” the partners are signaling their intent to create a therapy that offers a better patient experience—one defined by sustained weight maintenance, fewer side effects, and potentially a more convenient oral administration route than the current standard of injectables.

A Deep Dive into Cellular Signals

At the heart of this new venture is InterAx's Deep Signal™ platform, a technology that represents the next frontier in drug discovery. The platform is designed to tackle the complexity of G-Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs), a vast family of cell surface receptors that are the target of more than 30% of all approved drugs.

Instead of simply finding a molecule that binds to a target, the Deep Signal™ platform deciphers the intricate chain of signaling events that a drug triggers inside the cell. By integrating advanced cell biology, computational modeling, and machine learning, InterAx can map out how different chemical structures influence these cellular pathways. This allows for the rational design of drug candidates optimized for a specific therapeutic effect while minimizing signals that could lead to unwanted side effects.

“Our Deep Signal™ platform is specifically designed to navigate the complexity of GPCR signaling, and Alveus’s deep metabolic expertise makes them the ideal partner to bring this therapeutic candidate to patients,” said Andrew Roberts, CEO of InterAx, in the official announcement. This approach fundamentally de-risks the drug development process, which is notoriously plagued by high failure rates, by building a deeper understanding of a drug's biological impact from the earliest stages.

The Metabolic Disease Specialists

Alveus Therapeutics brings the clinical and developmental firepower necessary to translate InterAx's technological promise into a tangible therapy. Launched with a significant $159.8 million Series A financing, the company is laser-focused on creating next-generation treatments for obesity and metabolic diseases. Its leadership team includes veterans from Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, the very companies that currently dominate the field.

Alveus is already a clinical-stage company with a pipeline designed to address the key limitations of existing drugs. Its lead candidate, ALV-100, is a fusion protein engineered to deliver potent weight loss with better preservation of lean body mass. The company is also advancing a portfolio of molecules targeting the amylin pathway, another promising avenue for metabolic control. This existing focus on durability and tolerability makes Alveus a natural fit for a partnership aimed at creating a best-in-class small molecule.

“InterAx’s unique platform integrates drug chemistry, protein structure, cellular signaling and therapeutic efficacy – the essential expertise for effectively and efficiently designing highly differentiated candidates,” noted Jacob Jeppesen, Chief Scientific Officer and Head of R&D at Alveus. “We are excited to apply this unique approach to our joint program efforts.”

A Strategic Alliance in a High-Stakes Market

The collaboration exemplifies a classic and increasingly vital strategy in the biotechnology industry: pairing a nimble, technology-focused innovator with a development-savvy partner to take on established pharmaceutical giants. For InterAx, the agreement provides crucial non-dilutive funding and external validation of its platform. For Alveus, it offers a new, potentially superior asset to add to its growing pipeline, leveraging a discovery engine it does not possess in-house.

The structure of the deal, with an upfront payment followed by performance-based milestones, aligns the interests of both companies toward a single goal: successfully advancing the drug candidate through clinical trials and onto the market. This partnership is not just about novel science; it is a calculated business maneuver in a field with enormous commercial stakes. By pursuing a small molecule, the collaborators are also likely targeting an oral medication, which would offer a significant convenience advantage over the injectable drugs that currently define the market, further enhancing its disruptive potential.