Obesity’s next drug wave may come from silencing genes inside fat tissue. Moonwalk Biosciences, which is developing that approach, has secured $70M in Series B funding to move its lead candidate toward human testing.
Alpha Wave and YK Bioventures co-led the round. Eli Lilly, Gaorong Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures and Future Ventures participated. The South San Francisco biotech says the money will fund a first-in-human study of lead candidate MW101 in late 2027, expand its pipeline of tissue-targeted siRNA medicines and further advance its discovery platform.
The science centers on RNA interference delivered straight to adipose tissue, a bid to steer metabolism through pathways beyond the incretin hormones behind today’s weight-loss blockbusters, while trying to preserve lean muscle. The platform pairs human genetics and epigenomics with proprietary tissue-targeting chemistry.
The company is led by chief executive Alex Aravanis. Success would open a route to obesity treatment that works inside fat cells rather than through gut hormones.
The raise is the latest sign of investor appetite for metabolic science beyond GLP-1 drugs. Eli Lilly’s participation in a startup round gives it a window on rival approaches as the obesity market keeps expanding.
