Key Investor Signals
Co-founders previously built Ousia Pharma, backed by Omega Funds
Christoffer Clemmensen and Jonas Odgaard Petersen also co-founded Ousia Pharma, which secured a three-digit-million-DKK investment from Omega Funds in 2025 to advance its lead toward Phase 1.
Selected for BII Venture Lab with €500,000 convertible funding
Heureka joined BioInnovation Institute’s Venture Lab Cohort 10 in March 2026, gaining 12 months of company-building support and €500,000 in convertible funding.
Lead conjugate matched established MASH drugs in a mouse model
A Heureka lead conjugate matched the MASH benefit of semaglutide and survodutide in the GAN-DIO mouse model, providing early preclinical validation for its liver-targeted approach.
Other Positive Signals
- Heureka has filed composition-of-matter patent protection around its lead conjugate strategy.
- Spin-out of the University of Copenhagen’s Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research.
- Kei Sakamoto won the 2026 EASD–Novo Nordisk Foundation Diabetes Prize and became a Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellow.
- Christoffer Merrild received a DKK 1.1M PhD scholarship for liver-targeted AMPK research in fatty-liver disease.
Team
Christoffer Clemmensen
Scientific Advisor and Co-founder
- Scientific Vice President at Novo Nordisk and Group Leader at CBMR, working across obesity, cardiometabolic disease and translational drug discovery.
- Co-founded Ousia Pharma and serves as CSO; Ousia raised a three-digit-million-DKK investment from Omega Funds in 2025.
- Led research on GLP-1-directed NMDA receptor antagonist conjugates for obesity, published in Nature in 2024.
Jonas Odgaard Petersen
CSO and Co-founder
- Co-founded Ousia Pharma and serves as COO; the company secured a three-digit-million-DKK investment from Omega Funds in 2025.
- First-authored the 2024 Nature study on GLP-1-directed NMDA receptor antagonist conjugates for obesity.
- Holds a PhD in medicinal chemistry and a Master of Engineering in advanced chemistry, supporting Heureka’s small-molecule development.
Christoffer Merrild
COO and Co-founder
- PhD Fellow in the Clemmensen Group at CBMR, working in metabolism and molecular pharmacology.
- Holds a DKK 1.1M PhD scholarship for research on liver-targeted AMPK modulation in fatty-liver disease.
- Co-first author of a 2026 Journal of Physiology study on metabolic responses to glucagon receptor agonism.
Kei Sakamoto
Scientific Advisor and Co-founder
- Professor, Group Leader, and Vice Executive Director at CBMR, specializing in AMPK and metabolic signaling.
- Provided the first genetic evidence identifying a key upstream regulator of AMPK, the pathway central to Heureka's approach.
- Received the 2026 EASD–Novo Nordisk Foundation Diabetes Prize and was elected a Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellow.
Product
Heureka is developing liver-targeted peptide conjugates for MASLD/MASH. A peptide carrier binds a receptor concentrated on liver cells and delivers an AMPK-activating payload into them, concentrating the drug at the disease site rather than throughout the body.
Targeted delivery to liver cells
The conjugate uses a peptide carrier that binds a receptor concentrated on liver cells, carrying the attached drug into those cells rather than exposing tissues throughout the body.
Dual-action liver therapy
The carrier helps direct the therapy to the liver and also contributes its own metabolic effect. Once inside liver cells, the attached drug activates AMPK, a pathway that helps reduce fat production and support fat clearance.
Preclinical efficacy and patent filing
In the GAN-DIO mouse model, an unoptimized lead conjugate matched the MASH benefit of semaglutide and survodutide. The lead is being further optimized, and composition-of-matter patent protection has been filed.
Market Overview
MASLD affects an estimated 32.4% of adults globally, creating a very large population at risk of progressive liver disease. Some patients develop MASH, where inflammation and fibrosis can lead to cirrhosis, liver failure, transplantation or liver cancer. This creates a need for treatments that prevent progression before liver damage becomes irreversible.
MASH now has clear commercial validation. Rezdiffra became the first FDA-approved therapy in March 2024 and generated $958.4M in 2025 net sales, with more than 36,250 patients on treatment at year-end. Wegovy added a US MASH indication in 2025, while Novo Nordisk acquired Akero Therapeutics for up to $5.2B.
Estimated share of adults worldwide living with MASLD.
Net sales in 2025, Rezdiffra’s first full calendar year as an FDA-approved MASH therapy.
Estimated global MASH therapy market by 2030.
Diagnosed US patients with moderate-to-advanced liver scarring under the care of target liver specialists at year-end 2025.
Comparable Outcomes
Akero Therapeutics
Akero developed efruxifermin, an FGF21 analogue in Phase 3 for MASH, including patients with compensated cirrhosis. Novo Nordisk completed the acquisition in December 2025 for $4.7B upfront plus a $0.5B contingent value right.
89bio
89bio developed pegozafermin, an FGF21 analogue in Phase 3 for moderate-to-severe MASH, including patients with advanced liver fibrosis and compensated cirrhosis. Roche completed its acquisition of 89bio in October 2025 for $2.4B upfront, plus contingent payments that can bring the total deal value to $3.5B.
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Sources
This profile was built from public company materials, ecosystem sources, market references, and professional profiles.