A drug that exceeds placebo to help people lose weight is one of a growing number of next -generation obesity drugs that occur in China.
At first, Chinese pharmaceutical companies rushed to do similar versions of great success weight loss drugslike Wegovy and Ozempic, who have taken the world by assault. Today, China is emerging as an important innovator for the new drug discovery in this field, says Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist at the University of Toronto in Canada.
The results of a phase III trial of Ecnoglutida show that people who receive a weekly medication injection lost up to 13.8 kilograms for 48 weeks of treatment. On the contrary, people who gave placebo injections lost around 200 grams. The results were published in Lancet diabetes and endocrinology June 21.
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Ecnoglutida is an agonist analogue of the peptide-1 receptor (LPG-1) glucagon type, similar to the drug trafficking of great success. These drugs mimic the GLP-1 hormone, which is involved in the regulation of appetite and the management of blood sugar levels. Unlike the semaglutida, the eCnoglutida is preferably directed to the production of cyclical adenosine monophosphate, a messenger molecule associated with the regulation of glycogen metabolism, sugar and lipids, which helps control blood sugar levels, as well as weight loss.
The study, financed by the drug manufacturer Sciwind Biosciences, based in Hangzhou, China, included 664 people who received a weekly injection of a placebo, or one of the three doses of ecnoglutide. At the maximum dose of 2.4 milligrams, 92.8% of people lost at least 5% of their body weight, compared to 14% of people who receive placebo injections. People who received Ecnoglutida could also maintain their reduced weight after stopping the treatment, recovering about 1% of their body weight for a period of 7 weeks.
Linong JI, co -author and diabetes researcher at the Popular Hospital of the University of Beijing in Beijing, says that ECNOGLUTIDS also improved the risk factors of heart disease and diabetes, and reduced the amount of fat in people’s livers.
More drugs to come
They are developing and testing dozens of LPG-1 drugs in China, with “many more to come,” says Drucker.
Among them is Mazdutide, which imitates LPG-1 and glucagon, a hormone involved in blood sugar levels. In the results of the trials published in May, a weekly injection helped more people lose up to 15% of their body weight for 36 weeks and reduced the risk of cardiovascular diseases compared to a placebo treatment.
Developed by Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, Indiana, Mazdutide is manufactured by Biologics Innovent in Suzhou, China, under an exclusive license. Other trials are testing if the medicine can treat sleep apnea or type 2 diabetes.
The growing number of new GLP-1 drugs is aimed at multiple roads at the same time, so it will result in more red treatments, says Sof Andrikopoulos, a diabetes researcher at the University of Melbourne. The next generation of medications will be directed to specific conditions associated with diabetes and obesity, such as sleep apnea, fatty liver disease, chronic renal disease and heart disease, he adds. “It will give us options and make personalized medicine in obesity and diabetes more accessible.”
Triple threat
Another medication that takes place in China, known as UBT251, is a triple agonist, which mimics LPG-1, glucagon and another hormone called Gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP), which is involved in the metabolism of fats. UBT251 is the first GLP-1 medicine injectable biweek Novo Nordisk exclusive rights to try and sell the drug outside the Chinese continent, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
Bofangglutida, developed by Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals in Beijing, is another biweekly injectable treatment, but only goes to LPG-1. A phase II trial began to register US participants with obesity in March to prove it against a placebo and Tirzepatide, sold as Mounjaro and Zepbound by Eli Lilly.
Andrikopoulos says that it makes sense that China is developing these drugs. “Obesity and diabetes are important problems in Asian populations in China and India,” he says. Studies that recruit participants in China are also important to investigate the effectiveness of LPG-1 medicines in Asian populations, which could reveal differences not observed in Europe or the United States studies.
A pharmaceutical company based in Hong Kong, Ascletis, is also investigating the benefit of the oral drug once a day, called ASC30, for weight loss. The first results of the trial show that participants lost 6% of their body weight in the medication than with a placebo. The company has requested permission from the United States Drug and Food Administration to execute a phase II trial. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are also working on GLP-1 oral medications.
This article reproduces with permission and it was First published June 30, 2025.
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