• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
Everything we know about China's Ozempic and Wegovy rival to help people with weight loss

Home> News> Health

Published 18:25 1 Jul 2025 GMT+1

Everything we know about China's Ozempic and Wegovy rival to help people with weight loss

Several other weight loss jabs are being developed in China

Joe Harker

Joe Harker

Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Photo

Topics: Ozempic, Mounjaro, China, Health

Joe Harker
Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

X

@MrJoeHarker

Advert

Advert

Advert

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.

Advert

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)
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.

Advert

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)
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.

Advert

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

Advert

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.

Advert

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)
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.

Choose your content:

2 hours ago
3 hours ago
5 hours ago
  • 2 hours ago

    Man had chilling vision 10 days in a row before plane crash that saw 273 people killed

    Despite multiple calls to the company, nothing could be done

    News
  • 3 hours ago

    Heroic coast guard who saved nearly 200 children from camp in fatal Texas floods details rescue effort

    He called the kids the true heroes

    News
  • 3 hours ago

    Newlywed dies on honeymoon after being hit by lightning bolt while stood in sea during freak incident

    The incident happened at a picturesque Florida beach

    News
  • 5 hours ago

    What happens when you stop masturbating as doctor gives surprising answer to how often you should do it

    The more you know

    News
  • Lizzo puts record straight over huge weight loss as she explains truth behind Ozempic rumours
  • Woman sharing three stone weight loss transformation on Mounjaro reveals unusual side effect
  • UK investigating weight loss jabs as users left with organ-destroying side-effect that’s killed 10
  • All signs of irreversible ’side effect’ of Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy following doctor’s warning