Pfizer secures China nod for obesity drug as generics loom

Published Fri, Mar 6, 2026 · 03:45 PM

[BEIJING] China has approved a new obesity treatment from Pfizer, heightening competition in a market poised to become even more crowded with the looming entry of generics.

The drug, ecnoglutide, is approved for chronic weight management in overweight or obese adults, Pfizer announced on Friday (Mar 6) via WeChat. The company secured China rights to the therapy from local startup Hangzhou Sciwind Bioscience in a US$495 million deal in late February.

Pfizer now enters a field dominated by multinational rivals Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, alongside Chinese drugmaker Innovent Biologics, though the company has not disclosed a price or launch date. The approval comes just as Novo’s Wegovy faces patent expiry later this month, opening the door for cheaper copycat drugs.

Both Novo and Lilly have already slashed prices of their drugs amid the risk of a price war from generics.

A relative latecomer to the obesity race, Pfizer is striving to build its presence, including through its US$10 billion acquisition of Metsera. The company wants to be part of a “booming” China market for obesity drugs, chief executive officer Albert Bourla said at an investor conference this week, and buying Sciwind’s drug will offer commercial insights enabling it to compete “in a very aggressive way.”

Like Wegovy, Sciwind’s drug mimics GLP-1, a natural hormone that regulates blood sugar and appetite. But it has a slightly different structure, which the company believes makes the drug more effective and safer than other GLP-1 receptor agonists. It was earlier approved to treat diabetes.

In a late-stage study, ecnoglutide achieved weight loss on par with Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro, which targets one additional hormone beyond GLP-1. After 48 weeks, patients taking ecnoglutide saw an average weight loss of 15.4 per cent.

Under the agreement, Pfizer will market the drug in China, while Sciwind retains responsibility for further development, registration, manufacturing and supply. BLOOMBERG