China’s Secret Weapon Against Obesity: Could This New Drug Eclipse Ozempic and Wegovy?

You’ve probably caught wind of Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro—the trio of injections that seem to be the latest craze for those looking to shed a few pounds. Now, here’s a kicker: Ozempic is really meant for type-2 diabetes, but the weight loss star of the show is Wegovy, packing the same punch with semaglutide, courtesy of Novo Nordisk. Then there’s Mounjaro, a tirzepatide concoction from Eli Lilly, all cleverly tricking your gut hormone GLP-1 into telling your brain, “Hey, you’re full!” so you eat less and hopefully drop weight. But just when you thought the market might be settling, Nature steps in with news of an up-and-coming contender from China—ecnoglutide. Fancy a weight loss jab that’s new on the block and might just shake things up? Yep, me too. LEARN MORE

You’ve heard about the likes of Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, jabs which a growing number of people are taking in an attempt to help with their weight loss efforts.

Ozempic is actually for type-2 diabetes, so even though people know that name most, the version made specifically for weight loss is Wegovy.

That one contains the same main ingredient, semaglutide, and is made by the same company Novo Nordisk.

Meanwhile, Mounjaro is a tirzepatide-based drug from Eli Lilly, though they all work by mimicking the gut hormone GLP-1 which slows down the rate of food digestion and lets your brain know you’re no longer hungry.

Since you’re eating less then you ought to lose weight, at least in theory, and according to Nature, there’s a new weight loss drug joining them from China.

What is Ecnoglutide?

Weight loss jabs have proved to be incredibly popular (Getty Stock Photo)

Nature reports that weight loss drug development in China was using medication based on something called ecnoglutide, which works in a similar manner to semaglutide and tirzepatide.

Ecnoglutide also works like GLP-1 so it should make you feel fuller than usual if you take it.

Dr Daniel Drucker of the University of Toronto told the outlet that it was one of many GLP-1 drugs being tested in China, and a recent trial into its effectiveness appears to show that it works.

What results did patients see from testing the drug?

A study into the effectiveness of ecnoglutide was conducted on 664 people over the course of 48 weeks, with some of them being given a weekly injection of 2.4mg of the drug and others being given a placebo.

New drugs are being tested (Getty Stock Photo)

Over this 48 week period, 92.8 percent of people on the drug lost at least five percent of their body weight, with the most successful person shedding 13.8kg in the course of the trial.

On the other hand, the people in the placebo group who thought they were being injected with weight loss drugs but weren’t only lost around 200g in weight.

Only around 14 percent of the placebo group lost at least five percent of their body weight.

The study also kept tabs on the seven weeks after everyone received the jabs, with people on ecnoglutide putting on about one percent of their body weight back on after the end of the trial.

So it seems to work.

More weight loss drugs are expected from China

The new drugs being tested are based on an ingredient called ecnoglutide (Getty Stock Photo)

As Dr Drucker said, there are other weight loss drugs beyond ecnoglutide which are currently being tested in China.

The huge demand for the likes of Wegovy and Mounjaro have shown that plenty of people want these medications, and the doctor said there would be ‘many more to come’.

He told Nature that any of these were being developed in China, including mazdutide which comes from Mounjaro makers Eli Lilly.

That one is being manufactured in China and tests suggest that people on it can lose up to 15 percent of their body weight in 36 weeks.

As Dr Giles Yeo told LADbible, companies were working on weight loss drugs with ‘subtly different approaches’ and we can expect more medications to come.

He said: “I think what is going to happen is that we’re going to have a situation where more of these enter the market.

“More are going to come in the market. I’ve seen what’s coming down the line, and they’re going to be approved, then people can then try and find the one that suits them the best.”

Will they be legal in the UK?

A trial of the new drug with over 600 people found that it helped most of them lose at least five percent body weight (Getty Stock Photo)

That all depends on the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

It’s up to them whether to give a green light to a particular drug and determine what the parameters of prescription are going to be.

As their name suggests, the rules about medicines and treatments are written by them, so they’d have to be convinced that a new set of weight loss drugs was safe for people to take and then work out exactly who could be prescribed with some.