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LONDON — The booming obesity market is attracting another player, as pharma giant Roche said Monday it was acquiring Carmot Therapeutics and the company’s line of weight loss drug candidates for $2.7 billion upfront. 

The deal for Carmot, which is based in Berkeley, Calif., includes additional milestone payments of up to $400 million. Carmot is privately held, though it had filed paperwork last month for an initial public offering. 

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As part of the deal, Roche is gaining three experimental obesity medicines from Carmot, which are in Phase 1 or Phase 2 testing, as well as preclinical programs. While two are injectable treatments, one is being developed as an oral drug. They all target GLP-1 hormone receptors, while two are also designed to work via receptors for another hormone called GIP. 

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