Rhythm Pharmaceuticals is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on treating rare diseases that cause severe, pathological hunger and obesity through impairment of the melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) pathway — a neuroendocrine system in the brain that regulates hunger and energy expenditure. When this pathway is disrupted by genetic defects or hypothalamic injury, patients develop uncontrollable hunger and severe obesity that cannot be managed through diet or conventional obesity drugs. Rhythm's sole commercial product, IMCIVREE (setmelanotide), is a daily injectable MC4R agonist that activates the receptor downstream of wherever the pathway is impaired, effectively replacing the missing hormonal signal. IMCIVREE is approved in the U.S., EU, UK, and Canada for patients with obesity due to Bardet-Biedl syndrome or deficiencies in the POMC, PCSK1, or LEPR genes, priced at roughly $375,000 per patient per year in the U.S. Rhythm sells IMCIVREE through a specialty pharmacy in the U.S. and through direct operations or distribution partners internationally. Because patients are often undiagnosed and dispersed, Rhythm invests heavily in genetic testing programs, physician education, and a DNA sequencing database of roughly 120,000 obesity patients to identify candidates. The most significant near-term growth catalyst is a pending FDA decision on IMCIVREE for acquired hypothalamic obesity, a condition affecting an estimated 10,000 U.S. patients with no approved treatment today. Rhythm's pipeline includes bivamelagon, an oral once-daily MC4R agonist in Phase 2/3 development, and RM-718, a weekly injectable, both of which improve on setmelanotide's convenience and side effect profile and extend Rhythm's IP runway to 2040+.