Kailera Raises $600 Million to Launch Global Phase III Program for Obesity Drug

Kailera Therapeutics has secured $600 million in Series B financing led by Bain Capital Private Equity to initiate a global Phase III program for its lead obesity drug KAI-95311 3 5 7 11 13 15.

KAI-9531 is an injectable GLP-1/GIP dual agonist, similar to current leading obesity treatments, and aims to deliver substantial weight loss for people living with obesity1 5.

The Phase III program will include trials in adults living with obesity or overweight, both with and without type 2 diabetes, plus a separate trial for those with BMI of 35 or higher1 7.

Kailera completed End-of-Phase 2 meetings with the US FDA and expects to start global Phase III trials by the end of 20251 7.

The new funding sets the stage for Kailera’s KAI-9531 to potentially compete with established drugs like Zepbound, aiming to match or surpass significant weight loss metrics seen in competitors’ Phase III studies5.

The capital will also advance other pipeline candidates, including KAI-7535, an oral GLP-1 receptor agonist that showed competitive results in a Phase II trial in China, and a triple-agonist GLP-1/GIP/glucagon injectable1 7.

Kailera has the right of first refusal on further metabolic disease assets from Hengrui and is expanding rapidly with potential plans for an IPO as it scales its development and commercialization capabilities1 4 7.