By Andrew Silver

SHANGHAI, July 1 (Reuters) - Chinese drugmaker Innogen expects to complete a late-stage clinical trial of its experimental weight-loss drug candidate next year, its CEO said on Tuesday, the latest Chinese company to join the race to develop obesity treatments.

Chinese companies are rushing to develop drugs belonging to the GLP-1 class of medications for weight loss and related conditions as the patent of Novo Nordisk's NOVOb.CO semaglutide, a key active ingredient in its best-selling Ozempic and Wegovy drugs, is due to end in early 2026 in China.

"I think the Phase IIB will be out by the end of this year, then Phase III will be (finished) by next year,” Innogen CEO Wang Qinghua told Reuters in an interview about the company's experimental drug candidate.

Initial results from an early trial, published in June, showed people on the experimental efsubaglutide alfa injection lost about 7% of their body weight after four weeks.

By comparison, large-scale trials over a longer period for Novo's weight-loss drug Wegovy helped people lose an average 15% of their body weight, according to its clinical trial data.

Wang said the efficacy in Innogen's experimental injection was not fully visible in the firm's drug study because of the short evaluation time, adding the company expects to get more significant weight reduction as it continues with more studies.

Chinese regulators have already approved the Shanghai-based company's self-developed efsubaglutide alfa as a once-weekly injection for the control of Type 2 diabetes in January.

CHEAPER OPTIONS

Yurou Zheng, an analyst at Morningstar, said the near-term challenge for weight-loss drugs in China would be potential price competition, as more drugs are coming online.

"I think many users are more likely to pivot to cheaper options if the efficacy profiles are similar or even slightly less superior as long as they are well within a few percentage points," he said in a note.

On Friday, Chinese drugmaker Innovent Biologics 1801.HK became the latest local company entering the increasingly crowded weight-loss drug market, saying its treatment mazdutide, which is licensed from Eli Lilly LLY.N, was approved by the country's regulators.

The Suzhou-based firm said in June that a Phase III trial showed that after 24 weeks of treatment, 6 mg of mazdutide led to about an 8% change in body weight from baseline.

Underscoring growing competitive pressure in China, India's Biocon BION.NS dropped plans to commercialise its weight loss drugs in China, a senior executive told Reuters last week.

(Reporting by Andrew Silver; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)