Could I be prescribed it while I am in China?

The NMPA approval means a Chinese prescriber can prescribe it and a Chinese patient can fill it, which is the full extent of what it covers. Whether a visitor can obtain it, and what happens if it is carried home to a country where it is unapproved, is a separate legal question with its own restrictions. This page does not offer a route around any of that.

Which number is real, 14.8% or 20%?

Treat them differently. The 14.8% at 48 weeks on 6 mg comes from GLORY-1, which enrolled 610 Chinese adults and was published in NEJM. The roughly 20% figure on 9 mg comes from a separate phase 3 and has not been confirmed against that trial's own record, so it is the weaker of the two claims.

Eli Lilly is involved, so is a US approval basically a formality?

No. Innovent Biologics developed mazdutide from a compound licensed from Lilly, and a licensing origin is not a regulatory submission. US availability would need its own filing with dossiers appropriate to a US population, followed by review, and nothing about the Chinese approval shortens that or guarantees it happens.

Mazdutide: The China-First GLP-1/Glucagon Agonist

What this page establishes

Mazdutide is a once-weekly injectable GLP-1/glucagon receptor co-agonist developed by Innovent Biologics from a compound licensed from Eli Lilly.
GLORY-1 randomised 610 Chinese adults with overweight or obesity. At week 48 the 6 mg dose produced 14.01% mean weight loss (95% CI −15.36 to −12.66) and 4 mg produced 11.00%, against a 0.30% gain on placebo, on the treatment-policy estimand.
China's NMPA approved mazdutide for chronic weight management in June 2025 and for glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes in September 2025.
GLORY-2 randomised 461 Chinese adults with BMI 30 or above. At week 60 the 9 mg dose produced 16.65% mean weight loss against 1.50% on placebo. 9 mg is not a marketed weight-management strength; the marketed strengths are 2, 4 and 6 mg.

Quick answers

Could I be prescribed it while I am in China?
The NMPA approval means a Chinese prescriber can prescribe it and a Chinese patient can fill it, which is the full extent of what it covers.
Read the full answer
Whether a visitor can obtain it, and what happens if it is carried home to a country where it is unapproved, is a separate legal question with its own restrictions. This page does not offer a route around any of that.
Which number is real, 14.8% or 20%?
Treat them differently. The 14.8% at 48 weeks on 6 mg comes from GLORY-1, which enrolled 610 Chinese adults and was published in NEJM.
Read the full answer
The roughly 20% figure on 9 mg comes from a separate phase 3 and has not been confirmed against that trial's own record, so it is the weaker of the two claims.
Eli Lilly is involved, so is a US approval basically a formality?
No. Innovent Biologics developed mazdutide from a compound licensed from Lilly, and a licensing origin is not a regulatory submission.
Read the full answer
US availability would need its own filing with dossiers appropriate to a US population, followed by review, and nothing about the Chinese approval shortens that or guarantees it happens.

Mazdutide is an approved obesity medicine. It is also unavailable on prescription anywhere in the United States or Europe. China's NMPA approved it for chronic weight management and, separately, for glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes. FDA and EMA have not. That combination makes mazdutide the clearest illustration of a rule that runs through this whole cluster: approved is not a property of a drug, it is a relationship between a drug and a regulator, and it always needs a country attached.

What mazdutide is and where it came from

Mazdutide is a once-weekly injectable GLP-1 and glucagon receptor co-agonist, built on an oxyntomodulin backbone. It was developed by Innovent Biologics from a compound licensed from Eli Lilly.

The dual mechanism is the same class idea as survodutide: GLP-1 agonism for appetite and gastric emptying, glucagon-receptor agonism for energy expenditure and hepatic effects. The two are distinct molecules with separate trial programmes, and their results should not be pooled.

GLORY-1: the pivotal Chinese phase 3

GLORY-1 enrolled 610 Chinese adults with overweight or obesity and was published in NEJM. The 6 mg dose produced roughly 14.8% mean weight loss at 48 weeks, against about 0.5% on placebo, with a placebo-subtracted difference of about 13% at 32 weeks.

GLORY-2 tested 9 mg in 461 Chinese adults with a BMI of 30 or above and reported 16.65% mean weight loss at 60 weeks against 1.50% on placebo. Two things travel badly with that number: it is 60 weeks rather than 48, so it is not comparable with the GLORY-1 figure above, and 9 mg is not one of the marketed weight-management strengths, which are 2, 4 and 6 mg. Gastrointestinal side effects in that arm were common: vomiting 53.1%, nausea 46.9%, diarrhoea 39.4%.

The placebo arm is unusual GLORY-1's placebo arm lost about 0.5%. Western obesity trials commonly see 2% to 4% on placebo. A smaller placebo response makes the active arm's advantage look larger, which is one specific reason GLORY-1's numbers cannot be dropped into a table next to SURMOUNT-1 or STEP 1.

The NMPA approvals

China's NMPA approved mazdutide for chronic weight management in June 2025, and for glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes in September 2025. The months come from a peer-reviewed first-approval record; day-precise dates were not confirmed against the NMPA register.

Approval means a Chinese prescriber can prescribe it and a Chinese patient can fill it. That is the full extent of what it means.

Why approval in one country does not create availability in another

Drug approval is national or regional. FDA reviews a submission from a sponsor and issues a US label. EMA does the same for the European Union. NMPA does the same for China. There is no mechanism by which one regulator's decision transfers to another's territory, and there is no reciprocity agreement that would make a Chinese approval operative in the US.

US or EU availability would require a separate regulatory submission with dossiers appropriate to those populations, followed by review. Nothing about the Chinese approval shortens that path or guarantees it happens.

Personal importation of a drug approved abroad but unapproved domestically is a separate legal question with its own restrictions, and this page does not offer a route around any of it.

What the trial population means for everyone else

GLORY-1 enrolled Chinese adults. Body composition, baseline BMI distribution and dietary context all differ between that population and the North American and European populations enrolled in SURMOUNT-1 or STEP 1. Generalising the effect size to other populations is not established, and the reasonable position is that mazdutide is a drug with strong evidence in a specific population and untested effect size elsewhere.

Glucagon-receptor class considerations apply as they do to survodutide, including heart rate and hepatic parameters.

The supply narrative

A Chinese approval creates a story that grey-market sellers use: the drug is approved somewhere, therefore it is legitimate, therefore buying it is reasonable. The first clause is true and the rest does not follow. A vial bought online is not a product dispensed under an NMPA approval, is not subject to the quality oversight that approval carries, and does not become legal in your jurisdiction because it is legal in another one.

Not medical advice Educational content only, with no sourcing or dosing guidance. Mazdutide is approved in China and has no legal prescription route in the US or EU as of 23 August 2026. The NMPA approval months cited here come from a peer-reviewed first-approval record, and the exact days are not confirmed. Talk to a licensed prescriber about treatment options available where you are.

The evidence, one row per claim

Claim	Tier	Source
Mazdutide is a once-weekly injectable GLP-1/glucagon receptor co-agonist developed by Innovent Biologics from a compound licensed from Eli Lilly.	established	Innovent / NEJM
GLORY-1 randomised 610 Chinese adults with overweight or obesity. At week 48 the 6 mg dose produced 14.01% mean weight loss (95% CI −15.36 to −12.66) and 4 mg produced 11.00%, against a 0.30% gain on placebo, on the treatment-policy estimand.	established	GLORY-1, New England Journal of Medicine 2025;392:2215-2225 (NCT05607680)
China's NMPA approved mazdutide for chronic weight management in June 2025 and for glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes in September 2025.	established	Shirley M. 'Mazdutide: First Approval.' Drugs. 2025 Dec;85(12):1621-1627
GLORY-2 randomised 461 Chinese adults with BMI 30 or above. At week 60 the 9 mg dose produced 16.65% mean weight loss against 1.50% on placebo. 9 mg is not a marketed weight-management strength; the marketed strengths are 2, 4 and 6 mg.	established	GLORY-2, JAMA 2026;336(5):377-388 (NCT06164873)
Mazdutide is not FDA-approved; US availability would require a separate regulatory submission.	established	openFDA Drugs@FDA query returning no approved US application for mazdutide — the query deliberately returns no results, and that absence is the evidence

Sources

Where this comes from

Researched and edited by Thomas Prommer — biohacker, performance athlete, data enthusiast and health coach.

Every number on this page traces to a named source. There are 5 sourced claims below the fold, each with the document it came from.

Sources consulted: Innovent / NEJM, GLORY-1, Shirley M. 'Mazdutide: First Approval.' Drugs. 2025 Dec;85, GLORY-2, openFDA Drugs@FDA query returning no approved US application for mazdutide — the query deliberately returns no results.

Not clinically reviewed. This page was researched and written against primary regulatory and trial sources, and no clinician has checked it.

Sources last read 2026-08-23.

Keep reading

Educational content, reviewed 2026-08-23. Not medical advice, not a prescription, and not a substitute for a clinician who knows your history. Doses named here are label schedules or doses used in named trials, never a recommendation to you.

Mazdutide: Approved in China, Not in the US