Chinese weight-loss drug offers new hope to patients with diabetes and obesity

The clinical trial results of the Chinese-developed weight-loss drug mazdutide have recently been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, marking the first time a GLP-1 weight management therapy has appeared in three prestigious scientific journals — Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine, and JAMA, and offering new hope for the large population of Chinese patients with diabetes and obesity, the drugmaker and experts said.

The recently published study evaluated the efficacy and safety of a once-weekly, 9‑milligram dose of mazdutide, which was developed by domestic company Innovent Biologics, in treating obesity among Chinese adults.

The study showed that the drug achieved a mean weight reduction of over 20 percent, with no signs of plateauing. It also provided substantial improvements in cardiometabolic risk factors such as waist circumference, blood pressure, and blood lipids, and was generally safe.

Ji Linong, lead author of the study and director of the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Peking University People's Hospital, said that Chinese individuals with moderate to severe obesity have long lacked non‑surgical treatment options, and this study points to a new solution.

The drugmaker said that it has submitted applications for market approval to the National Medical Products Administration based on these results.

The company added that these findings, along with results from two other studies that examine the drug's effects in Chinese adults with type‑2 diabetes and obesity, as well as in Chinese adolescents with obesity, respectively, were presented as oral presentations at the 86th American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions, which was held in New Orleans, United States, from June 5 to 8.

Gong Chunxiu, from Beijing Children's Hospital, said the study results demonstrate the drug's role in blocking the progression from adolescent obesity to clinical obesity and metabolic syndrome in adulthood.

The company added that a phase‑3 clinical trial investigating the drug's effects in Chinese adolescents with obesity is currently underway.