Biomea Fusion (NASDAQ:BMEA) executives outlined the company’s diabetes and obesity strategy during a fireside chat at the Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference 2026, emphasizing its menin inhibition program in diabetes and a separate oral GLP-1 program in obesity.
Roger Song, SMID-cap biotech analyst at Jefferies, hosted the discussion with Biomea Fusion Chief Operating Officer Ramses and Chief Development Officer Steve Morris. Ramses said Biomea has shifted strategically toward metabolic diseases, primarily diabetes and obesity, after identifying menin as a target involved in the body’s response to metabolic demand.
Biomea Focuses Menin Program on Insulin-Deficient Type 2 Diabetes
Ramses said Biomea’s menin inhibitor program is being evaluated in two Phase 2 studies, COVALENT-211 and COVALENT-212. He described insulin-deficient patients as the most responsive group identified in the company’s work, along with patients who are on GLP-1 therapies but still have uncontrolled blood sugar.
Ramses said current diabetes treatments are chronic therapies that do not restore function. “There is not one agent that is restoring any function,” he said, adding that many patients eventually progress to insulin therapy. He framed Biomea’s approach as an attempt to restore beta-cell capacity rather than continuously manage blood sugar through chronic dosing.
According to Ramses, the insulin-deficient population is being identified using criteria including body mass index, elevated A1C, adult status and prior failure of one to three diabetes agents. He said these patients are typically not obese but are overweight or normal weight, with high A1C because of insufficient insulin production.
For the GLP-1 subgroup, Ramses said Biomea is studying patients who are already on a GLP-1 receptor agonist but still have high A1C. He said menin inhibition appears to increase receptors in the pancreas, potentially supporting a synergistic effect with GLP-1 therapy. However, he noted that enrollment in the GLP-1 study can be more complex because patients often titrate doses, switch therapies or are not stable on treatment.
FDA Discussions Center on Non-Chronic Dosing
Ramses said Biomea has discussed its non-chronic treatment approach with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He said the company doses for 12 weeks and then follows patients to assess whether the effect persists after drug discontinuation.
He said the FDA asked Biomea to show safety and efficacy, with A1C serving as the key endpoint. Ramses said the company’s primary endpoint is at six months, with continued follow-up to 12 months as a secondary assessment. He also said Biomea intends to roll patients into a follow-up study to monitor A1C over time and assess whether re-dosing may eventually be needed.
“No reason not to re-dose,” Ramses said, while adding that the company does not yet know whether re-dosing will be necessary. He said the company believes the effect could last because beta cells can persist for long periods, but emphasized that this remains the theory being tested.
Ramses said Biomea believes a reduction in A1C of at least 0.5 percentage points would be meaningful in Type 2 diabetes. He said prior placebo-adjusted results have shown reductions between 1.5 and 1.8 percentage points, but he cautioned that he was not projecting that larger Phase 2 studies would match those levels. He said a result between 0.5 and 1.0 percentage point would be viewed positively.
Company Discusses Potential Pricing and Payer Value
Song also asked about payer considerations if a one-time or intermittent diabetes therapy were approved. Ramses said the potential patient benefit would include avoiding chronic daily treatment and possibly delaying or preventing insulin use.
He said Biomea has analyzed the potential value of preventing insulin use for one year and estimated the cost impact at more than $30,000. Ramses said typical diabetes drug pricing after frontline therapies may fall in the range of $8,000 to $12,000 annually, though he stressed that Biomea is not yet in a commercial or Phase 3 setting and has not determined pricing.
Oral GLP-1 Program Advances in Phase 1
Beyond menin inhibition, Ramses discussed Biomea’s oral GLP-1 program in obesity. He said the company began the program about three years ago with the goal of creating a small molecule GLP-1 therapy that is more tolerable and easier for patients to stay on.
Ramses said current GLP-1-based therapies are effective but that many patients discontinue treatment because of discomfort, nausea or other tolerability issues. He compared Biomea’s goal to developing an oral GLP-1 with qualities similar to orforglipron, but with improved acceptability and potentially faster titration.
The program is currently in Phase 1 multiple ascending dose cohorts in obese but otherwise healthy participants, Ramses said. He said Biomea is evaluating week-by-week dose escalation over four-week increments and expects to provide updates soon.
Ramses said the company expects multiple readouts over the next 12 months across obesity, COVALENT-211 and COVALENT-212, while also noting early success in an all-comer Type 1 diabetes study.
About Biomea Fusion (NASDAQ:BMEA)
Biomea Fusion, Inc (NASDAQ:BMEA) is a clinical‐stage biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Carlsbad, California. The company is dedicated to the discovery and development of small molecule therapies that target epigenetic regulators implicated in cancer. By leveraging a proprietary chemistry and drug discovery platform, Biomea Fusion aims to design precision medicines that modulate gene expression pathways involved in the initiation and progression of hematological malignancies and solid tumors.
The company’s lead clinical asset, BMF-219, is an orally bioavailable inhibitor of the menin–mixed‐lineage leukemia (MLL) protein–protein interaction.
