The 85th American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions have shown the depth of China’s play for the GLP-1 market, with Corxel Pharmaceuticals and Sciwind Biosciences among the companies to share data at the event.
Corxel reported phase 2 data on an oral GLP-1 receptor agonist that it acquired the rights to outside of greater China in December. Vincentage, the company Corxel acquired the rights from, ran the trial to assess the small-molecule GLP-1 candidate in nondiabetic adults in China. Participants were overweight or had obesity plus at least one obesity-related comorbidity.
Participants who received a fast titration to the highest dose lost 9.7% of their body weight in 16 weeks. The slow titration to the highest dose was similarly effective, with participants losing 9.4% of their body weight. Weight loss on the lowest dose was 5.8%. Placebo patients lost 1.6% of their weight.
Weight loss was more consistent using the slow titration. On that regimen, 90% of patients lost at least 5% of their weight, compared to 77% of patients who received the fast titration. The slower titration was less likely than the fast regimen to drive weight loss of 10% or 15%. A phase 3 trial is underway in China.
Sciwind, meanwhile, published phase 3 data on its injectable GLP-1 receptor agonist ecnoglutide. Mean weight loss after 48 weeks was 15.4%. Eli Lilly linked tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Zepbound, to weight loss of up to 17.5% in its Chinese phase 3 trial but the U.S. drugmaker also saw a higher placebo response. After adjusting for placebo, ecnoglutide drove fractionally more weight loss than tirzepatide did.
Such cross-trial comparisons can be unreliable, but the available evidence suggests ecnoglutide can hold its own against the incumbents. Sciwind said 92.8% of patients lost at least 5% weight at Week 48 on ecnoglutide. Lilly saw 5% weight loss in up to 87.7% patients in its phase 3 trial.
If approved in China, ecnoglutide will enter a market that is already served by Lilly and Novo Nordisk and is being targeted by other drug developers. The level of competition will make it hard for any company without strong differentiation to claim a large share of the market, but the opportunity is big enough that securing even a slice of the sector will yield sizable sales.