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89bio, Inc.
89bio develops experimental drugs for liver and heart-related metabolic diseases.
89bio is a small drug developer working on medicines for liver and heart-related metabolic diseases. Its lead drug candidate, pegozafermin, is a lab-made version of a natural hormone that helps control how the body handles fats and sugars. The goal is to treat conditions like severe fatty liver disease (a buildup of fat in the liver that can lead to scarring and worse) and high levels of blood fats called triglycerides.
The company was built as a public company, but its shares no longer trade on the stock market. In 2025, the Swiss drugmaker Roche agreed to buy 89bio in a deal valued at up to about $3.5 billion, and the acquisition closed later that year. So today 89bio is a wholly owned part of Roche, not an independent listed stock. For a young biotech like this, the business model is simple to describe but hard to pull off. It spends money on years of laboratory work and clinical trials, then hopes to prove a drug is safe and effective enough to win regulatory approval. If that happens, a big partner like Roche can use its global sales force to bring the medicine to patients. Until then, there are no product sales — just research spending and the promise of what the drug might become.
Roche's interest tells you what the smart money thinks of the drug's potential. Fatty liver disease and heart-metabolic problems affect huge numbers of people, and there are still relatively few good treatments. That combination — a large unmet need plus a drug with promising early data — is exactly what makes a small biotech an attractive takeover target.
Saved answer · last researched 15 Nov 2026