Innovent Biologics has achieved a significant milestone in obesity treatment with the successful completion of the GLORY-1 Phase 3 clinical trial for mazdutide (IBI362), a novel glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) and glucagon receptor (GCGR) dual agonist. The company announced that the trial met both primary endpoints and all key secondary endpoints, positioning mazdutide as the first GLP-1R/GCGR dual agonist to succeed in Phase 3 trials for weight management.
Trial Design and Results
The GLORY-1 study (NCT05607680) was a multi-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating mazdutide's efficacy and safety in Chinese adults with overweight or obesity. The 48-week study enrolled 610 participants who were randomized to receive mazdutide 4 mg, 6 mg, or placebo during the double-blind treatment period.
Both mazdutide doses demonstrated superiority to placebo in the primary endpoints: percentage change in body weight from baseline to week 32 and the proportion of participants achieving ≥5% weight loss at week 32. Notably, weight-loss efficacy continued to improve from week 32 to week 48, suggesting sustained therapeutic benefit.
The trial's success extended beyond primary endpoints, with all key secondary endpoints being met. These included the proportion of participants achieving ≥10% or ≥15% weight loss, as well as improvements in multiple cardiometabolic parameters including waist circumference, systolic blood pressure, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, total cholesterol, serum uric acid, and alanine aminotransferase levels.
Safety Profile and Clinical Significance
During the double-blind treatment period, mazdutide's safety profile remained consistent with previous clinical studies, with no new safety signals observed. This favorable safety profile, combined with the robust efficacy data, supports the drug's potential as a new therapeutic option for weight management.
Professor Linong Ji, the leading principal investigator from Peking University People's Hospital, emphasized the clinical significance of these results: "The results of GLORY-1 once again demonstrated the robust weight-loss efficacy, multiple cardiometabolic benefits and good safety of mazdutide as a new-generation GLP-1R/GCGR dual agonist."
Mechanism of Action and Therapeutic Advantage
Mazdutide functions as a mammalian oxyntomodulin (OXM) analogue, offering dual receptor activation that may provide advantages over single-target therapies. Beyond the established effects of GLP-1 receptor agonists on insulin secretion, glucose lowering, and weight reduction, mazdutide's glucagon receptor activation may increase energy expenditure and improve hepatic fat metabolism.
Dr. Lei Qian, Vice President of Clinical Development at Innovent, noted that mazdutide "pioneers a new generation of weight-loss drugs as a novel GLP-1R/GCGR dual agonist, with accumulated clinical data on more than a thousand Chinese participants."
Market Context and Unmet Medical Need
The successful trial addresses a critical healthcare challenge in China, which has the world's highest number of obese individuals. Obesity-related mortality has increased dramatically, with deaths caused by overweight and obesity accounting for 11.1% of chronic non-communicable disease deaths in 2019, compared to 5.7% in 1990.
Traditional pharmacological therapies available in China have demonstrated limited efficacy and multiple safety concerns, highlighting the significant unmet clinical need for more effective and safer therapeutic options for the Chinese obese population.
Regulatory Timeline and Development Pipeline
Innovent plans to submit the first new drug application (NDA) for mazdutide's weight management indication to China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) in the near term. This represents mazdutide's first registrational trial for weight management and provides high-quality clinical evidence specifically for the Chinese population with overweight or obesity.
The company is currently conducting four Phase 3 studies of mazdutide in Chinese patients, including two additional trials in overweight or obesity (GLORY-1 and GLORY-2) and two in type 2 diabetes (DREAMS-1 and DREAMS-2). This comprehensive development program demonstrates Innovent's commitment to addressing multiple aspects of metabolic disease management.
Strategic Partnership and Commercial Potential
Mazdutide's development stems from an exclusive license agreement between Innovent and Eli Lilly and Company for the development and potential commercialization of OXM3 (mazdutide) in China. This partnership leverages Lilly's expertise in metabolic diseases while positioning Innovent to address the specific needs of the Chinese market.
The successful Phase 3 results position mazdutide as a potentially transformative therapy for the hundreds of millions of overweight or obese individuals in China, representing a significant commercial opportunity in the rapidly growing obesity treatment market.
