(Yicai) Feb. 24 -- Global pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has obtained exclusive commercialization rights for a new Chinese obesity drug, boosting its efforts to expand into China’s fast-growing weight-loss drug market.

The deal gives Pfizer exclusive commercialization rights in China for ecnoglutide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 drug developed by Chinese biotech firm Sciwind Biosciences. It will pay up to USD495 million in transfer fees, including an upfront payment, as well as regulatory and sales-based milestone payments, Hangzhou-based Sciwind announced today.

Ecnoglutide is one of a growing number of GLP-1 drugs in Chinese market. Sciwind gained approved for it to be used in China for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in January, and its use for long-term weight management in adults is currently under review by the National Medical Products Administration.

Currently, 14.1 percent of Chinese adults are obese, said Jean-Christophe Pointeau, senior vice president of Pfizer Global and president of Pfizer China, and the condition is closely linked to metabolic diseases such as hypertension and high blood sugar. Weight management has been included in the government’s Healthy China Initiative, and the deal with Sciwind will allow Pfizer to support this national strategy, he added.

Obesity is a complex chronic disease, and a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers. GLP-1 drugs are innovative therapies for obesity, and five have been approved in China so far, including the two leading drugs semaglutide from Denmark’s Novo Nordisk, and tirzepatide from US-based Eli Lilly.

As more GLP-1 weight-loss drugs have entered the market in China, competition has intensified, leading to a price war at the end of last year. Novo Nordisk cut the price of semaglutide by 50 percent, while Eli Lilly reduced the price of tirzepatide by 80 percent.

Pfizer has been frantically trying to join this lucrative market, but has had to abandon several candidate treatments following safety and tolerability issues.

Sciwind has previously granted exclusive commercialization rights to ecnoglutide in South Korea to HK Inno.N, and exclusive commercialization rights in all global markets excluding China and South Korea to UK-based Verdiva Bio.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Tom Litting