(Yicai) March 15 -- Novo Nordisk has clarified that the weight-loss foods recently on sale on Chinese e-commerce sites under a name with a ‘Sema’ prefix were not produced by the Danish pharmaceutical giant.

None of the products claiming to have the same ingredients as Novo Nordisk’s Semaglutide, which contains glucagon-like peptide-1, have been made by the company, Novo Nordisk told Yicai. No food with Semaglutide is currently on sale in China, it added.

GLP-1 is a polypeptide hormone released by the intestine after eating. It can stimulate islet beta cells to secrete insulin and get involved in the regulation of blood sugar balance in the body.

Semaglutide, which is available both as injections and pills, is the world’s first and only drug containing GLP-1 medicine for oral use. Originally developed to lower blood sugar levels, it can also help with weight loss.

The US Food and Drug Administration approved Semaglutide injection for the weight loss indicator in June 2021. In China, both Semaglutide injections and pills can only be used to treat type-two diabetes in adults.

All diet-loss drugs approved in China are injections, including Liraglutide and Benaglutide, developed by Huadong Medicine and Shanghai Benemae Pharmaceutical, respectively.

It is hard to say whether diet food with GLP-1 will help or not people to lose weight, an insider engaged in the development of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs told Yicai, adding that such foods will hardly have the same efficacy as drugs because GLP-1 exists only for a very short time inside the human body.

Editor: Futura Costaglione