More Chinese drugmakers are moving beyond GLP-1s, adopting new strategies to capture a larger share of the global diabetes market.
GLP-1 drugs have become the face of modern diabetes care. They work, they scale and they’ve turned companies like Novo Nordisk into global powerhouses. But for all their success, they also reflect a familiar logic: manage symptoms, often for life.
That logic is increasingly being questioned, especially in China, where diabetes has become both a public health emergency and a biotech opportunity. In 2022, an estimated 828 million adults worldwide were living with diabetes, according to the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, up from just under 200 million in 1990. Costs are climbing just as fast. The International Diabetes Federation estimates global diabetes-related healthcare spending reached $966 billion in 2021 and could exceed $1 trillion by 2045 [1].
Against this backdrop, a growing number of Chinese biotechs are asking a different question: what if diabetes treatment focused less on managing glucose spikes and more on restoring the body’s ability to regulate itself?
A different playbook from Shanghai
Shanghai-based Hua Medicine is one of the clearest examples of this shift. Its approved type 2 diabetes drug, dorzagliatin, does not mimic gut hormones like GLP-1. Instead, it targets glucokinase, an enzyme that acts like the body’s internal glucose sensor [2].
Think of glucokinase as a thermostat. When it works properly, the body knows when to release insulin and when to ease off. In people with type 2 diabetes, that sensing system breaks down. Dorzagliatin aims to recalibrate it, helping the body respond to glucose more naturally.
“Hua’s strategy is to demonstrate the broad benefits of addressing the root cause of type 2 diabetes,” chief strategy officer George Lin told Endpoints News during the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference [3].
Rather than layering control on top of dysfunction, the company is betting that repairing the underlying mechanism could slow or even partially reverse the disease’s progression.
Dorzagliatin is already approved in China, but Hua’s ambitions stretch far beyond its home market. The company plans to expand into Hong Kong, Macau and Southeast Asia, while preparing for global development through a next-generation version of the drug.
That follow-on candidate is currently being tested in a Phase 1b study in the US. The goal is to attract a pharmaceutical partner capable of funding later-stage trials and global commercialization. To get there, Hua will need to show that the new version offers more stable glucose control and meaningfully improves on the original.
Hua also believes its approach could complement, rather than replace, GLP-1 therapies, opening the door to combination treatments that address both symptoms and disease mechanisms.
Learning to commercialize fast
Hua’s strategy is not only scientific but operational. In late 2024, the company ended its commercialization partnership with Bayer, which had been responsible for marketing dorzagliatin in China [4].
What followed was a rapid pivot. Hua built its own sales force of roughly 200 people and took direct control of the product’s rollout. Revenue climbed to $31.2 million in the first half of 2025, and the company expects annual revenue to reach $143 million by 2027 [3].
The move highlights a broader trend: Chinese biotechs are no longer content to hand off commercialization to multinational partners. They are learning to scale independently and quickly.
Crowded markets, sharper differentiation
Competition is intensifying at home. More than 60 late-stage diabetes and weight loss drug candidates are currently in clinical trials in mainland China, according to LEK Consulting [5]. As Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide approaches patent expiry in China next year, up to 20 biosimilar or generic versions are expected to enter the market, putting pressure on prices.
Some companies are responding by refining GLP-1s, including efforts to make them oral rather than injectable. As we previously reported, Shanghai-based CORXEL Pharmaceuticals recently raised up to $287 million to advance an oral GLP-1 program aimed at reducing friction for long-term use.
Others, like Hua, are differentiating at a deeper level by changing the biological target altogether.
Hua believes the implications of its approach extend beyond diabetes management. The company plans to study potential benefits in mild cognitive impairment, as well as diabetes remission and prevention in people with prediabetes.
This is where diabetes care intersects with longevity. Type 2 diabetes is a progressive disease that extends its damage quietly over decades. Treating it as a lifelong numbers game may keep people alive, but it does little to protect healthspan.
By aiming to modify the disease itself, Chinese biotechs like Hua are reframing diabetes as a longevity challenge and positioning themselves as serious contenders in the global effort to extend not just life, but healthy years.
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/d43747-025-00071-9
[2] https://www.huamedicine.com/En/dorzagliatin
[3] https://endpoints.news/hua-medicine-plots-diabetes-drug-expansion-in-china-and-beyond/
[4] https://www.yicaiglobal.com/news/chinas-hua-medicine-sinks-on-plan-to-end-distribution-tie-up-with-bayer-on-diabetes-drug
[5] https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3312684/mainland-chinese-market-weight-loss-and-diabetes-drugs-soon-be-more-crowded-report
