-  First participants with obesity or overweight with at least one weight-related comorbidity have been dosed in a U.S. 13-week Phase IIa study of small molecule oral GLP-1 receptor agonist ASC30.

-  ASC30 oral once-daily tablet demonstrated up to 6.5% placebo-adjusted mean body weight reduction from baseline after four-week treatment in a U.S. Phase Ib study.

-  Topline data from ASC30 oral 13-week Phase IIa study are expected in the fourth quarter 2025.

HONG KONG , July 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ascletis Pharma Inc. (HKEX: 1672, "Ascletis") announces today that the first participants with obesity or overweight with at least one weight-related comorbidity have been dosed in a U.S. 13-week Phase IIa study of small molecule oral GLP-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonist ASC30 for the treatment of obesity (NCT07002905).

The Phase IIa study is a 13-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and multi-center study to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and tolerability in participants with obesity (body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg/m²) or overweight (BMI ≥ 27 kg/m² but < 30 kg/m²) with at least one weight-related comorbidity. Two oral formulations of ASC30, once-daily are being evaluated: formulation 1 (ASC30 tablets) and formulation 2 (ASC30 tablets A1). The primary endpoint of this Phase IIa study is the mean percentage body weight change from baseline at Week 13. The tolerability and efficacy data from the ASC30 oral Phase Ia and Ib studies (NCT06680440) support a lower starting dose and slower titration strategy for the 13-week Phase IIa study design of ASC30 oral once-daily (Press Release). The 13-week Phase IIa study protocol has a lower starting dose of 1 mg of both formulation 1 and formulation 2, with weekly titrations to the desired maintenance doses of 20 mg and 40 mg of formulation 1 or 20 mg, 40 mg and 60 mg of formulation 2.

Both formulations 1 and 2 have been evaluated in the oral ASC30 Phase Ia single ascending dose (SAD) study (NCT06680440). Formulation 2 demonstrated a flatter pharmacokinetic profile than formulation 1.

ASC30 was discovered and developed in-house at Ascletis as a first and only investigational small molecule GLP-1R biased agonist designed to be dosed once daily orally and once monthly subcutaneously for the treatment of obesity.

"We are happy that we are ahead of the schedule of our U.S. 13-week Phase IIa study since we have initiated screening of participants in June and recently completed dosing of the first participants," said Jinzi Jason Wu, Ph.D., Founder, Chairman and CEO of Ascletis, "We are looking forward to the topline data from this Phase IIa study in the fourth quarter 2025. As a small molecule, ASC30 has the potential to offer both once-daily oral and once-monthly subcutaneous injection dosing options for obesity treatment, if approved."

About ASC30

ASC30 is an investigational GLP-1R biased small molecule agonist and has unique and differentiated properties that enable the same small molecule for both oral tablet and subcutaneous injection administrations. ASC30 is a new chemical entity (NCE), with U.S. and global compound patent protection until 2044 without patent extensions. 

About Ascletis Pharma Inc.

Ascletis Pharma Inc. is a fully integrated biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of potential best-in-class and first-in-class therapeutics to treat metabolic diseases. Utilizing its proprietary Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Structure-Based Drug Discovery (AISBDD) Platform and Ultra-Long-Acting Platform (ULAP), Ascletis has developed multiple drug candidates in-house, including its lead program, ASC30, a small molecule GLP-1R agonist in development as a once-daily oral tablet and once-monthly subcutaneous injection for weight management. Ascletis is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (1672.HK).

To learn more about Ascletis, please visit www.ascletis.com.

Contact：

Peter Vozzo
ICR Healthcare
443-231-0505 (U.S.)
Peter.vozzo@icrhealthcare.com

Ascletis Pharma Inc. PR and IR teams
+86-181-0650-9129 (China)
pr@ascletis.com
ir@ascletis.com 

 

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SOURCE Ascletis Pharma Inc.