Chinese GLP-1 Drugs Surge Overseas with Over $30 Billion in Deals in 2025

　　【Pharmaceutical Network Market AnalysisIn recent years, the number of obese and diabetic patients worldwide has surged, and the widespread prevalence of metabolic diseases has driven the GLP-1 drug market into a phase of explosive growth. Facing huge market demand and pipeline replenishment pressure, leading international pharmaceutical companies have turned their attention to China. Meanwhile, GLP-1 drugs produced in China, with cost advantages and R&D capabilities, are experiencing a boom in overseas expansion. Statistics show that by 2025, Chinese pharmaceutical companies will have completed over eight overseas licensing deals related to GLP-1, with total transaction amounts (upfront payments + milestones) exceeding 30 billion US dollars.
 

CSPC reached a cooperation deal with AstraZeneca worth up to 18.5 billion US dollars (approximately 128.5 billion yuan), including an upfront payment of 1.2 billion US dollars (approximately 8.4 billion yuan). Through this collaboration, CSPC has licensed the overseas rights of its once-a-month injectable weight management portfolio to AstraZeneca. This includes a clinical-ready project, SYH2082 (a long-acting GLP1R/GIPR agonist advancing to Phase I clinical trials), and three preclinical projects with different mechanisms of action. The two parties will also collaborate on four additional new projects.
 

Recently, Pfizer China and Hangzhou Xianweida Bio jointly announced a strategic cooperation. Pfizer has obtained the exclusive commercial rights for Enoxeglutide Injection, a new generation biased GLP-1 receptor agonist, in mainland China, with a total transaction value of up to 4.95 billion US dollars. It is reported that, in addition to this cooperation with Xianweida, Pfizer had previously reached a cooperation of up to 2.085 billion US dollars with Yaopharma for oral GLP-1 products, gradually forming a GLP-1 product matrix covering injections and oral forms while balancing multiple partners.
 

In March 2025, The United Laboratories licensed the tri-agonist (GLP-1/GIP/GCG) UBT251 to Novo Nordisk for an upfront payment of $200 million and milestone payments of $1.8 billion. UBT251 is a long-acting synthetic peptide triple agonist targeting GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon (GCG) receptors. The product has been approved for clinical trials in mainland China for adult type 2 diabetes, overweight or obesity, MAFLD, and chronic kidney disease, and in the United States for adult type 2 diabetes, overweight or obesity, and chronic kidney disease. On February 24, 2026, Novo Nordisk and The United Laboratories jointly announced positive results from the Phase II weight loss study of UBT251 in China. Based on these results, The United Laboratories plans to initiate a Phase III clinical trial targeting overweight or obese patients in China.
 

Gan&Lee Pharmaceuticals has gone global twice by 2025, licensing Bofanaglutide (GZR18) to Latin American pharmaceutical company PC and Indian giant Lupin, covering two major emerging markets. According to available information, Bofanaglutide (development code: GZR18), independently developed by Gan&Lee Pharmaceuticals, is a GLP-1RA injection administered once every two weeks, designed to treat obesity/overweight and type 2 diabetes. Clinical research data show that Bofanaglutide effectively reduces body weight and lowers blood glucose levels while comprehensively improving other metabolism-related indicators. Moreover, its safety and tolerability profile aligns with GLP-1RA drugs, making it a potential first-to-market GLP-1RA biweekly formulation. Currently, the global development of Bofanaglutide injection has entered Phase III clinical trials.
 

The explosive growth of China-produced GLP-1 overseas is the result of Chinese pharmaceutical companies' long-term focus on innovation and cost optimization. Compared with international pharmaceutical companies, Chinese companies have an advantage in R&D efficiency, enabling them to quickly respond to market demands while demonstrating outstanding cost control capabilities, making their products more price competitive. More importantly, domestic pharmaceutical companies have continuously made breakthroughs in GLP-1 target innovation and dosage form optimization, forming differentiated competitive advantages. At present, China-produced GLP-1 is in a critical period of opportunity. In the future, as more China-produced GLP-1 products complete clinical trials and achieve commercialization, Chinese pharmaceutical companies are expected to play a more significant role in the global metabolic disease drug market.
 

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