Obesity drugs made in China could power next wave of treatments

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01987-z
"A  drug that outperforms placebo in helping people to lose weight is
one of a growing number of next-generation obesity drugs being produced
in China.
At first, Chinese pharmaceutical companies rushed to make similar
versions of blockbuster weight-loss drugs, such as Wegovy and Ozempic,
that have taken the world by storm. Nowadays, China is emerging as
important innovator for new drug discovery in this field, says Daniel
Drucker, an endocrinologist at the University of Toronto in Canada.
Results from a phase III trial of ecnoglutide show that people receiving
a weekly injection of the drug lost up to 13.8 kilograms over 48 weeks
of treatment. By contrast, people given placebo injections lost around
200 grams. The results were published in The Lancet Diabetes and
Endocrinology on 21 June.
Ecnoglutide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist
analogue, similar to the blockbuster obesity drug semaglutide. These
drugs mimic the hormone GLP-1, which is involved in regulating appetite
and managing blood-sugar levels. Unlike semaglutide, ecnoglutide
preferentially targets the production of cyclic adenosine monophosphate,
a messenger molecule associated with regulating glycogen, sugar and
lipid metabolism, which helps to control blood-sugar levels, as well as
weight loss.
The study, funded by drug manufacturer Sciwind Biosciences, based in
Hangzhou, China, included 664 people given either a weekly injection of
a placebo, or one of 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 with 14% of people receiving placebo injections. People
receiving ecnoglutide were also able to maintain their reduced weight
after stopping treatment, regaining around 1% of their body weight over
a 7-week period.
Linong Ji, a co-author and a diabetes researcher at Peking University
People’s Hospital in Beijing, says ecnoglutide also improved risk
factors for heart disease and diabetes, and reduced the amount of fat in
people’s livers."