Ascletis Pharma’s obesity drug has shown the potential for once quarterly dosing, trumping Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy (semaglutide) and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound (tirzepatide).
During the Phase Ib study (NCT06679959), the glucagon-like receptor-1 agonist (GLP-1RA) – otherwise known as ASC30 – demonstrated a half-life of 75 days. This makes the drug’s effects nearly ten times more long-lasting than both Wegovy and Zepbound, which have half-lives of five to six days and one week, respectively.
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After a single subcutaneous dose of 100mg, ASC30 reached median maximum concentrations in the blood 17 days post-dose. Asceltis touted this and the half-life data as a sign of the drug’s potential as a weight maintenance therapy.
The GLP-1RA also demonstrated a favourable tolerability profile in the 12-week trial, with no serious adverse events (SAEs) of Grade 3 or higher reported, while 87.5% of treatment-associated adverse events (TEAEs) were rated mild at Grade 1. There were also no discontinuations associated with ASC30 treatment.
According to Ascletis CEO and chair Jinzi Jason Wu, post-obesity treatment maintenance therapy is an area fraught with unmet need, but once-quarterly therapy could be the answer.
Wu stated: “Based on its promising pharmacokinetic parameters, including the ultra-long half-life, and good safety, we believe once-quarterly administration of ASC30 has the potential to help patients maintain their weight without rebound.”
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By GlobalDataMoving forward, the company plans to convene with regulators to select an appropriate maintenance dose for future studies on ASC30 as a subcutaneous maintenance therapy.
Ascletis bets on obesity
Alongside its efforts to commercialise ASC30 as a maintenance therapy, Ascletis is also hoping to gain a slice of Wegovy and Zepound’s success on the first-line treatment market.
This has led to the initiation of a Phase IIa trial in the indication, which is exploring the efficacy of a once-monthly dose in obese patients with at least one weight-related comorbidity. Topline data from this trial is expected to be released in Q1 of 2026.
If this pans out for Ascletis, it could be a highly lucrative strategy, as analysts at GlobalData – parent company of Clinical Trials Arena – estimate that the obesity market will be worth $206bn in 2031, a 1575% increase on the indication’s $12.3bn worth in 2021.
However, Ascletis has not just set its sights on subcutaneous glory, as the Chinese biotech is also looking to jump on the GLP-1RA tablet bandwagon.
This follows the Phase Ib success of oral ASC30, which saw patients lose 6.5% of their body weight compared with baseline in four weeks. To further its goal of tapping this newly emerging market, Ascletis is now running a Phase IIa trial for the drug, which began dosing in July 2025.
Notably, the biotech has such high hopes for its obesity portfolio that it has chosen to terminate the development of four out of five assets across its viral disease pipeline – once a cornerstone of its operations – to channel funds into its metabolic assets.
However, this emerging market may be tough to penetrate for Ascletis, as key players Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have both submitted applications to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for their oral GLP-1RAs, orforglipron and oral semaglutide, after their respective Phase III successes.
If they were to be approved, analysts at GlobalData forecast that orforglipron would be a top-seller for Lilly, bringing in $14.1bn by 2031. Meanwhile, analysts estimate that semaglutide will pull in $4.4bn for Novo Nordisk.
Viking Therapeutics could also be entering the oral GLP-1RA ring, as its oral weight loss drug, VK2735 has met its primary endpoint in the Phase II VENTURE-Oral Dosing trial (NCT06068946).
