Jundee Medical's First Weight-Loss Combination Product Completes Clinical Follow-Up; Company Advances Multi-Platform Strategy for Chronic and Mental Health Disorders

Swallow a Few “Capsules” to Lose Weight?

Does this sound like a “IQ tax”? Not at all.JTX102: An Intragastric Space-Occupying Capsule. The product has recently completed follow-up for its registration clinical trials and has officially entered the study closure and clinical data statistical analysis phases. The clinical trial results are expected to be released in mid-2026.

JTX102—Gastric Volume-Occupying Capsule: As its name suggests, it is a weight management product that reduces dietary intake by forming a non-absorbable fiber sol to occupy gastric volume.Compared with traditional weight-loss methods such as exercise and dieting, it offers a faster approach while ensuring safety; in contrast to surgical or pharmacological interventions, it has fewer side effects and causes minimal disruption to users’ daily lives. Once future clinical trial results further confirm its efficacy and safety, it is poised to spark a wave of transformation in the field of weight management.

At the beginning of 2023, the product’s developer, Xiamen Junde Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Junde Medical”), also attracted significant investor interest, closing a Pre-A+ financing round worth tens of millions of yuan with joint investment from Fujian Yingke Venture Capital Co., Ltd. and Xiamen High-Tech Investment Group. Previously, Junde Medical had secured tens of millions of yuan in Pre-A financing from Deyi Capital.

Regarding the funds raised in this round of financing, Dr. Luo Jingnan, Chairman and General Manager of Junde Medical, stated that they will be primarily used for the clinical development, regulatory registration, manufacturing, and commercialization of JTX102, an intragastric volume-occupying capsule. Additionally, the funds will accelerate the R&D and clinical progress of product pipelines across multiple core technology platforms.

Xiamen Junde Medical Technology Co., Ltd. was established in 2020.

Prior to this, Dr. Luo Jingnan, the founder, had already cultivated extensive expertise in the field of combination products for decades, engaging in the research and development of such products both domestically and internationally, and establishing enterprises dedicated to these business operations.

“Establishing Junde Medical involved transferring our prior R&D and manufacturing expertise in combined pharmaceutical-device products for cardiovascular and orthopedic indications to the fields of chronic diseases and mental disorders,” stated Luo Jingnan.

Therefore,Junde Medical brings together a team of R&D professionals with multidisciplinary backgrounds in pharmacy, biology, materials science, and engineering. By leveraging drug-device combination technologies, the company aims to provide innovative pharmaceutical products and therapeutic solutions for chronic and neurological diseases with unmet clinical needs.

“The integration of pharmaceuticals and medical devices is a typical interdisciplinary field, thus placing high demands on the diverse backgrounds of R&D teams,” said Luo Jingnan. “The R&D team at Junde Medical comprises professionals with multidisciplinary expertise, which stands as one of our core strengths.”

As for why the company chose to focus on chronic diseases and mental disorders, and why a weight-loss product became Junde Medical’s first offering, Luo Jingnan explained to VCBeat in an interview that this decision was primarily driven by three characteristics of chronic and mental diseases: their large patient populations, their significant impact on quality of life, and the fact that clinical needs remain largely unmet.

Taking mental illness as an example, according to the “2022 Blue Book on the Digital Mental Health Services Industry” by Haoxinqing, mental disorders are among the top ten causes of disease burden worldwide. It is estimated that nearly 1 billion people globally suffer from mental disorders, meaning almost one in every eight individuals is affected, representing a substantial patient population.

However, pharmacotherapy, one of the primary treatment modalities for mental disorders, has certain limitations, such as issues with patient adherence and fluctuations in drug concentration peaks and troughs. The integration of pharmaceuticals and medical devices may offer a solution to these challenges.

As for chronic diseases, it is a widely acknowledged fact that the number of patients is enormous, with a trend toward affecting younger populations. According to the World Economic Forum’s white paper, “Chronic Diseases 2030: Innovating to Accelerate Change,” cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes are the leading causes of death globally; nearly three-quarters of all deaths worldwide are attributable to chronic diseases; each year, 17 million people under the age of 70 die from chronic diseases. In China, which has the largest population of individuals with chronic diseases, such conditions account for 88.5% of all deaths.

Furthermore, Dr. Luo Jingnan introduced, “Chronic diseases are one of the major challenges facing global healthcare, and their clinical treatment is particularly difficult. Currently available therapies and pharmaceuticals on the market cannot fully meet the needs of clinical treatment.” Therefore,Junde Medical aims to provide treatment solutions for chronic diseases that better meet clinical needs and offer enhanced safety through its combination pharmaceutical-device products.

It is worth noting that in the field of chronic diseases, Xiamen Junde Medical Technology Co., Ltd. pays particular attention to metabolic chronic diseases and is highly optimistic about the development of scientifically-based weight loss products.

The rationale is twofold: on one hand, obesity ranks among the four major global medico-social challenges, alongside HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, and alcoholism; China has over 200 million individuals with obesity, ranking first worldwide. On the other hand, there is a relative scarcity of weight-loss products that effectively balance efficacy and safety—existing options either exhibit significant adverse effects or require improved therapeutic outcomes. There is an urgent need for novel solutions in obesity treatment.

Similarly, the investors in Junde Medical’s Pre-A+ round also share a strong interest in chronic disease management and even obesity treatment.

“China currently has 600 million people who are overweight or obese, ranking first globally. Against the backdrop of worsening obesity rates and growing domestic awareness of body image and health, weight management products are poised for rapid development in the future. Dr. Luo Jingnan and his team possess extensive professional expertise in materials science and life sciences, along with rich commercialization experience. Fujian Yingke Venture Capital is optimistic about Dr. Luo’s team’s foundational, platform-level innovation capabilities and expects that such robust original innovation will drive the commercial implementation of products in the weight loss sector,” said Cao Feng, Partner of Biopharmaceuticals at Fujian Yingke Venture Capital.

So,As Junde Medical’s first product to enter the obesity treatment market, what are the distinctive features of JTX102, the intragastric volume-occupying capsule?

“The mechanism of action of this product is to reduce dietary intake by forming a fiber sol that occupies gastric volume and is not absorbed by the human body.” According to Dr. Luo Jingnan,For this product, two performance metrics are critical: water absorption capacity and mechanical strength.

Theoretically, the ideal state is to possess both strong water absorption capacity and high mechanical strength. In practice, however, water absorption capacity and mechanical strength are inversely related: the stronger the water absorption, the weaker the mechanical strength, and vice versa. Therefore, achieving a balance between the two has become critical.

In this regard,Junde Medical has adopted suitable superabsorbent polymers and crosslinking agents to ensure water absorption capacity while maintaining mechanical strength.

It is worth noting that Junde Medical adopts an R&D model of “disciplinary integration–technology platform–patented products,” which involves first establishing technology platforms and then continuously exploring and developing product pipelines from these platforms.

As of now,Junde Medical has established multiple drug-device combination technology platforms, including SaMoc and E-SuLac.

Among them,The SaMoc technology platform is primarily a platform for the modification and cross-linking of superabsorbent gels., the superabsorbent polymer material and cross-linking technology used in the aforementioned JTX102—intragastric volume-occupying capsule—are derived from this technology platform.

AndThe E-Sulac platform deeply integrates knowledge and technologies from materials science, pharmaceutics, medicine, and engineering to achieve steady drug release in the stomach on a weekly or monthly basis, thereby attaining a therapeutic effect that “peaks-shaving and valley-filling” for drug efficacy. In addition to gastric-retentive capsules, Xiamen Junde Medical Technology Co., Ltd. is developing more than five innovative combination products of drugs and medical devices, targeting psychiatric disorders and chronic metabolic diseases.

Leveraging these two drug-device combination technology platforms, Junde Medical will, on the one hand, seek solutions in the field of chronic disease management that are significantly differentiated from existing treatment regimens; on the other hand, it will actively empower established manufacturers of psychiatric medications, helping them deliver more comprehensive and professional solutions.

From another perspective, Junde Medical’s future commercialization strategy will proceed along two parallel tracks: first, leveraging its own advantages and resources to develop end-user products; and second, empowering pharmaceutical and medical device enterprises through its multiple drug-device combination technology platforms.

Yang Yuyu, Investment Director at Xiamen High-Tech Investment, also affirmed Junde Medical’s development strategy: “With the aging population, a series of problems and economic losses caused by chronic diseases are issues that humanity must face in the future. Junde Medical has innovatively built multiple drug-device combination technology platforms, enabling sustainable development and offering opportunities for application in various fields of chronic and mental diseases, with the potential to become a true platform-based enterprise. Dr. Luo leads his team in solid R&D efforts, demonstrating holistic, strategic, and forward-thinking approaches to the future development of the chronic disease sector. We look forward to the company’s accelerated growth, leveraging its continuous momentum of innovation to emerge as a shining star among China’s innovative pharmaceutical and medical device enterprises focused on chronic disease management.”

From Dr. Luo Jingnan’s perspective, “the integration of pharmaceuticals and medical devices holds significant promise in the treatment of chronic and mental disorders. In the future, Junde Medical will prioritize R&D, focusing on the integration of pharmaceuticals and medical devices as its core strategy, to continuously develop innovative combination products for the treatment of chronic and mental diseases.”