A dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist made by a Chinese biotech produced up to 18.3% weight loss over 24 weeks in a placebo-controlled phase 2 trial, according to results published on 17 September in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. The drug, BGM0504, acts on the same two gut-hormone receptors as tirzepatide. The trial was small, at 120 adults, ran only in China, and was run by the company that makes the drug. BGM0504 is not approved anywhere, and no head-to-head comparison against an existing drug was performed.
What the trial measured
One hundred and twenty Chinese adults with overweight or obesity and without diabetes were randomly assigned in equal numbers to one of three once-weekly injected doses of BGM0504 — 5 mg, 10 mg or 15 mg — or to placebo, for 24 weeks. Those doses are reported here as the published trial records them; BGM0504 is investigational and is not available on prescription. The primary endpoint was the percentage change in body weight at week 24.
Mean weight change was −10.68% on 5 mg, −16.07% on 10 mg and −18.33% on 15 mg, against +0.13% on placebo. All three doses beat placebo at p < 0.0001. Waist circumference fell by 8.88 cm, 12.71 cm and 14.38 cm respectively, against 1.03 cm on placebo. The share of participants reaching the trial’s prespecified weight-loss targets rose with dose.
Side effects tracked dose as well. Treatment-emergent adverse events were reported by 96.7%, 93.5% and 100% of the three drug groups and by 86.7% of the placebo group. Events the investigators judged drug-related ran at 53.3%, 80.6% and 93.1% on drug against 40.0% on placebo. The most common were gastrointestinal: nausea, diarrhoea and vomiting. One serious adverse event occurred, in the 10 mg group. No adverse event caused anyone to leave the trial.
How much this tells you
Three things limit what can be read into the headline number. It is a phase 2 trial, the stage designed to find a dose and check tolerability rather than to establish that a drug works; phase 3 is where obesity drugs are judged. It ran 24 weeks, which is short — the large trials behind the approved incretin drugs run considerably longer, and weight loss on this class has generally not levelled off by six months. And every participant was recruited in China, so the result does not automatically transfer to a US population.
The temptation with a number like 18.3% is to line it up against figures published for tirzepatide. That comparison is not valid: different trials, different durations, different populations, no shared control group. This trial tested BGM0504 against placebo only. What the data support is narrower and still worth noting — a further incretin drug has shown dose-dependent weight loss large enough to justify phase 3, which is the route by which a market currently dominated by two products eventually gains more.
Nothing here speaks to whether the weight stays off: the trial stopped at 24 weeks and reported no post-treatment follow-up. Nothing speaks to cardiovascular or other clinical outcomes. The adverse-event rates are near-universal in every arm, placebo included, which usually reflects how thoroughly a trial collects them rather than how the drug feels — but the gap in drug-related events between 15 mg and placebo is large and real. Several authors are employed by BrightGene Bio-Medical Technology, which makes the drug, or by firms contracted to the programme. Whether regulators outside China review the data depends on where the company files.
Sources: Ji L, Yang G, Huang Y, et al. “Effectiveness, Safety and Pharmacokinetics of BGM0504, a Dual GLP-1/GIP Receptor Agonist, in Chinese Adults With Overweight or Obesity Without Diabetes: A Phase 2 Multicentre, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial.” Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, published online 17 September 2026 (doi:10.1111/dom.71193). Trial registrations NCT06973681 and CTR20233198.
