This Pharma Company Is Betting Big On A Chinese Ozempic Rival

Forbes

Kailera jumped the weight loss miracle-drug line by licensing four clinical-stage obesity therapies from China, which is quickly emerging as a powerhouse pharmaceutical R&D center.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/2025/04/12/this-pharma-company-is-betting-big-on-a-chinese-ozempic-rival/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, this pharma company is betting big on a Chinese Ozempic rival.

00:07In the summer of 2023, Dr. Amir Zamani, a 42-year-old Johns Hopkins-trained physician

00:14who is a partner on Bain Capital's Life Sciences team in Boston, was obsessed with obesity drugs.

00:21Ozempic, the blockbuster injectable for type 2 diabetes from Novo Nordisk,

00:26was taking America by storm, on pace to generate some $14 billion in revenue that year

00:32for the Danish pharmaceutical giant.

00:35Eli Lilly was nearing FDA approval for its similar weight loss drug, ZepBound.

00:40Zamani eagerly wanted to find a competitor.

00:43He'd been reading the early research for two years and spent months digging through reams of data from dozens of companies.

00:50Then, he struck gold in an unexpected place.

00:53The portfolio of Jiangsu Honggrui Pharmaceuticals, one of China's biggest pharmaceutical companies.

01:00Showcased in the early clinical data before him was a potential next-generation injectable weight loss therapy

01:06that, like Ozempic and ZepBound, targeted the blood sugar and appetite-regulating hormone GLP-1.

01:14He says, quote,

01:14It was like, wait a second, they're ahead of everybody else who's not Novo or Lilly.

01:21Results from phase 2 clinical trials in China ultimately showed 59% of participants

01:26lost 20% or more of their body weight on an 8mg dose of the drug in 36 weeks.

01:32And side effects were mild.

01:34If those results hold, the drug could be especially useful

01:38for severely obese patients who need to lose more weight

01:41than they can on currently available medications.

01:45Better yet, it was available to license.

01:48Zamani recalls, quote,

01:49We said, gosh, this looks like it's really a best-in-class therapy.

01:53Then we got very serious.

01:56Zamani notes that the portfolio also included three other drugs,

02:00two of them more easily administered pills.

02:02It used to be that Chinese drug development

02:05was largely about creating so-called Me Too drugs for the local market.

02:10But over the past 10 years,

02:12with Beijing focused on building a native biotech industry,

02:15U.S.-trained Chinese scientists returned home

02:18and started innovating instead of mimicking.

02:21A January report by Stiefel analyst Tim Oppler

02:24noted that nearly one-third of molecules

02:27sourced by major pharmaceutical companies

02:29through licensing deals are coming from China.

02:33American outfits have spent $8.1 billion

02:35on upfront payments for Chinese drugs

02:37between 2020 and 2024,

02:40compared to $536 million in the preceding five years,

02:44according to biopharma deals database Dealforma.

02:48While U.S. regulations have cracked down

02:50on investment in Chinese companies,

02:52there are minimal restrictions on U.S. companies

02:54buying or licensing pharmaceutical assets created there.

02:59Jory Bell, a general partner at VC firm

03:01Playground Global, says,

03:03quote,

03:03when new biology hits or new sets of targets become proven,

03:07then suddenly everyone who wants one of those

03:10just goes shopping in China.

03:13Zamani wasted no time with the obesity drug,

03:15quickly partnering with Cambridge, Massachusetts-based VC shop

03:18Atlas Venture and New York's RTW Investments.

03:22The three firms invested $400 million to spin up Kailera Therapeutics in October,

03:28launching with a license for the four Hungary therapies

03:31and a plan to shepherd them to market.

03:33Having a ready-made portfolio of four drugs

03:36should allow Kailera to move fast in a space

03:39that has become extremely competitive

03:41since Ozempic became a household name.

03:44Global sales of the category ballooned 50% last year

03:47to $36 billion

03:48and could more than triple again

03:50to $131 billion by 2028,

03:54according to Durham, North Carolina-based research firm

03:57ICVIA Institute for Human Data Science.

04:00To run Kailera,

04:02the investors hired an all-star,

04:04Ron Renaud,

04:05a 56-year-old former biotech stock analyst

04:08with a nearly unequaled track record

04:09of building biotech startups

04:11and then selling them for big profits.

04:13Over the past decade,

04:15Renaud has run and sold three companies,

04:18Identix, focused on hepatitis C,

04:21Translate Bio,

04:22an mRNA therapeutics company,

04:24and Cerevil,

04:26centered on neurological diseases,

04:28for a total of $16 billion.

04:31By going to China,

04:33Kailera skipped years of research and lab work.

04:36Renaud now plans to move aggressively

04:38with phase 3 clinical trials in the U.S.

04:40for that first drug

04:41in hopes of bringing it to market by 2030,

04:44if not sooner.

04:45That might sound like a long way off,

04:48but in the scheme of drug development and approval,

04:50it's lightning fast,

04:51thanks to Hungary's early work.

04:54For full coverage,

04:56check out Amy Feldman's piece on Forbes.com.

05:00This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

05:02Thanks for tuning in.

05:10Thanks for tuning in.

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