UBT251, an experimental once-weekly injection that acts on three hormone receptors, lowered body weight by between 13.6% and 19.7% over 24 weeks, against 2.0% on placebo, in a phase 2 trial of 205 adults in China published in Cell Metabolism on 7 October. It uses the same three-receptor approach as Lilly’s retatrutide. For patients, nothing changes yet: UBT251 is not approved anywhere, and anything sold online under that name is not the trial drug.
What the trial measured
The trial was randomised, double-blind and placebo-controlled, and ran at multiple centres in China. Its sponsor is the drug’s developer, The United Bio-Technology (Hengqin), an affiliate of Zhuhai United Laboratories. It enrolled 205 adults with overweight or obesity and without type 2 diabetes; 59% were women and ages ranged from 18 to 61. According to the trial registration, participants received weekly injections at one of three target doses, 2 mg, 4 mg or 6 mg, with the 4 mg dose tested under two different starting doses, or a placebo, for 24 weeks.
Weight fell by between 13.6% and 19.7% across the UBT251 groups and by 2.0% on placebo. Subtracting placebo gives differences of 11.5 to 17.7 percentage points (19.7 minus 2.0 is 17.7). The 95% confidence interval for the smallest difference ran from 9.0 to 14.1 points, and for the largest from 14.6 to 20.8 points. Both sit well clear of zero, so the drug clearly beat placebo, but the true size of the largest effect could plausibly lie anywhere in that six-point range. The abstract reports improvements in waist size, BMI, blood pressure, blood fats and blood sugar measures without giving their size. The most common side effects were mild-to-moderate gastrointestinal symptoms; the abstract gives no rates and no figure for how many people stopped treatment.
How it compares, and what is not known
Triple agonists add activity at the glucagon receptor to the GLP-1 and GIP actions of tirzepatide. The best-known, retatrutide, produced 17.5% weight loss at 24 weeks at its highest dose, against 1.6% on placebo, in its 338-person phase 2 trial published in 2023. At face value UBT251’s top result is in the same range. Comparisons across trials are unreliable, though: the populations, entry thresholds and dosing schedules differ, and every UBT251 participant was in China. Two of the paper’s authors are Novo Nordisk employees; the abstract does not describe the company’s role. It joins a growing list of GLP-1-based drugs in development in China.
This is a 24-week phase 2 trial in 205 people, funded by the developer, with company employees among the authors. This report is based on the published abstract and the trial registration: the full paper is behind a paywall, and no results have been posted to ClinicalTrials.gov. Twenty-four weeks is too short to show where weight loss levels off; in retatrutide’s phase 2 trial it was still climbing at 48 weeks. Tolerability, discontinuation and any safety questions specific to the glucagon component cannot be judged from the abstract. The authors say the results support moving to phase 3.
Sources: Zhou Z, Cheng Z, Jin P, et al. “UBT251, a novel triple GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon receptor agonist, in adults with overweight or obesity: A multicenter, randomized phase 2 trial.” Cell Metabolism, published online 7 October 2026; ClinicalTrials.gov NCT07177469, first posted 17 September 2025, no results posted; Jastreboff AM, Kaplan LM, Frías JP, et al. “Triple-Hormone-Receptor Agonist Retatrutide for Obesity — A Phase 2 Trial.” New England Journal of Medicine, 10 August 2023.
