Aardvark raises $85M to target hunger, not appetite, as it contemplates IPO, pharma deals

A small San Diego biotech wants to take a different approach to the weight loss drug R&D field by going after hunger rather than suppressing appetite like the wildly popular GLP-1 class.

“Most folks will conceptualize appetite and hunger as, ‘Aren’t they just different extremes along the same continuum?’” Aardvark Therapeutics CEO Tien Lee told Endpoints News. “But they’re actually two different neurologic drives.”