On Sept. 29, Structure Therapeutics, a U.S. biotech company, announced that its experimental obesity drug had succeeded in a small, early-stage trial in which participants lost an average of 10 pounds after four weeks of oral once-daily treatment. The good news sent Structure Therapeutics shares soaring more than 30%.

Structure Therapeutics' oral weight loss drug belongs to the GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) therapy, which mimics hormones in the gut to suppress a person's appetite.
Compared with injectable weight loss drugs, oral weight loss drugs are more convenient to use and help improve patient compliance. In the global market, Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, Pfizer are developing GLP-1 class of oral weight loss drugs, but no one has been marketed so far.
In the current global GLP-1 weight loss drug market, Novo Nordisk's weekly injection of Wegovy (mainly composed of semaglutide) still dominates. The drug has been sought after by the capital market and users.
The United States is a major market for Wegovy, with more than 9 million prescriptions for Wegovy and the similar GLP-1 hypoglycemic drug Ozempic written in U.S. healthcare facilities between 2020 and 2022, representing a 300% increase in prescriptions over three years.
Priced at thousands of dollars a month, Wegovy and Ozempic are used by many Hollywood celebrities and billionaires, including tech mogul Elon Musk.
According to AD analytics firm MediaRadar, drugmakers spent nearly $500 million on ads for obesity and diabetes treatments in the United States in the first seven months of this year, a figure that is up 20 percent from the same period a year ago.
The top four drugs in the ads were Novo Nordisk's Ozempic, Wegovy and diabetes drug Rybelsus and Boehringer Ingelheim's diabetes treatment Jardiance, accounting for three-quarters of the total AD spend of $360 million.
As a chronic metabolic disease, obesity has attracted more and more attention in Chinese society. In China, pharmaceutical manufacturers such as China Xinda Biology and East China Medicine are also developing oral GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. Some studies predict that by 2030, the number of overweight/obese adults in China will reach 810 million, and more than 65% of the population may face obesity problems.
This month, East China Medicine said that the new drug clinical trial (IND) application for oral small molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist HDM1002 tablets for weight management indications in overweight or obese people has recently been approved by the State Drug Administration.
Dongbao Zixing, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tonghua Dongbao, also received CDE acceptance of its clinical trial application for oral small molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist (THDBH110 capsule) last month.
But the side effects of GLP-1 remain unclear. Gastrointestinal events are a well-known side effect of GLP-1 drugs. Recently, the FDA updated the label of diabetes drug Ozempic to acknowledge that some people who use the drug have developed intestinal obstruction.
In addition, some people who use Ozempic and Wegovy have also reported the appearance of a condition called gastroparesis (paralysis of the stomach). But experts say these cases are considered rare and may not be a direct result of the drugs themselves.
Most gastrointestinal side effects are mild to moderate in severity and short in duration, Novo Nordisk said.