Beinaglutide
Beinaglutide, recombinant human GLP-1 (7-36) amide
Written by Aaron CuhaReviewed Sep 2026
Also known as: rhGLP-1, Benaglutide, GLP-1 (7-36) amide
The only marketed GLP-1 drug that is the unmodified human hormone, which is why it has to be injected three times a day. Approved in China, and in a 427 person phase 3 it produced 6.0 percent weight loss against 2.4 percent on placebo over 16 weeks.
Overview
Every other drug in this class is the human hormone rebuilt to survive in the bloodstream: an amino acid swapped to resist the enzyme that degrades it, a fatty acid chain added to bind albumin, a protein domain fused on to slow clearance. Beinaglutide is none of that. It is recombinant human GLP-1 (7-36) amide, the actual sequence the gut releases after a meal.
That design choice has one consequence that dominates everything else about the drug: native GLP-1 is cleared in minutes, so beinaglutide is injected three times a day before meals. In the phase 1 pharmacokinetic study, plasma concentrations peaked within about fifteen minutes and then fell.
It has been on the Chinese market for years for type 2 diabetes, and China's regulator approved it for weight management in July 2023, making it one of the earliest GLP-1 drugs approved for that indication anywhere and the second in China.
The weight result is real but modest by current standards. In a 427 person double-blind phase 3, 16 weeks of thrice-daily beinaglutide produced 6.0 percent weight loss against 2.4 percent on placebo, a difference of 3.6 percentage points, with 58.2 percent of treated participants losing at least 5 percent. Against semaglutide 2.4 mg and tirzepatide, which produce weight losses in the mid-teens over longer trials, that is a different tier of effect.
The most striking beinaglutide number in the literature is not from a randomised trial. A retrospective real-world study of 314 Chinese patients reported 10.05 kg of weight loss and a 2.87 percentage point fall in glycated haemoglobin over three months, which is far larger than the controlled trials show and should be read as what uncontrolled retrospective data does to effect sizes.
Mechanism of action
Recombinant human glucagon-like peptide-1 (7-36) amide, produced in a recombinant system and identical in sequence to the endogenous hormone. It activates the GLP-1 receptor exactly as the native hormone does: glucose-dependent insulin secretion from pancreatic beta cells, glucagon suppression, delayed gastric emptying and reduced food intake through vagal and central pathways. Because it carries no modification to resist dipeptidyl peptidase-4 and no albumin-binding or Fc domain, it is degraded and cleared on the same timescale as endogenous GLP-1, which is why it is dosed before each main meal rather than once weekly. Preclinical work in diet-induced obese mice reports changes in adipose tissue lipid composition and in expression of lipid metabolism genes alongside improved insulin sensitivity in white adipose tissue.
Human evidence
A 427 person double-blind phase 3 for weight management, several randomised trials in type 2 diabetes including comparisons against insulin aspart 30 and combinations with insulin glargine, a phase 1 pharmacokinetic study, and a large retrospective real-world cohort. Multiple meta-analyses have been published.
- Phase 3, 16 weeks, 427 non-diabetic adults: 6.0 percent weight loss against 2.4 percent on placebo, with nausea in 49.3 percent against 7.1 percent.
- Phase 1 pharmacokinetics in 16 people confirmed the very short exposure profile that forces thrice-daily dosing.
- Randomised trials exist in type 2 diabetes as monotherapy, with metformin, with insulin glargine, and against premixed insulin aspart 30 with antidrug antibody measurement.
- Smaller randomised trials have examined hepatic steatosis in type 2 diabetes with fatty liver and weight loss in obese women with polycystic ovary syndrome.
- A retrospective cohort of 314 patients reported 10.05 kg of weight loss at three months, roughly triple the controlled effect.
What this does not tell you: The controlled weight trial ran 16 weeks. Nothing here approaches the 68 and 72 week trials behind semaglutide 2.4 mg and tirzepatide, and the effect size is roughly a third of theirs. Almost every trial is Chinese, so the population is not representative of Western body weights and diets. There is no cardiovascular outcome trial. And the thrice-daily injection schedule is the practical fact that determines whether anyone stays on it, which the trials measure only over months.
Reading the research record
Beinaglutide is useful on this site for a reason separate from whether anyone should take it: it is the control condition for the entire class.
Every modification in semaglutide, liraglutide, dulaglutide and the rest exists to solve one problem, that native GLP-1 disappears within minutes. Beinaglutide is what the unmodified hormone does when you give it as a drug. It works. It lowers glycated haemoglobin, it causes weight loss, and it was approved for both. It just has to be injected before every main meal, and its weight effect is a fraction of what the long-acting analogues achieve.
That comparison tells you something the marketing does not. The difference between 6 percent and 15 percent weight loss is not mainly a difference in receptor pharmacology. It is a difference in how long the receptor is occupied. Sustained exposure, not a cleverer signal, is most of what the modern drugs added.
One more thing worth flagging. The retrospective real-world study reporting 10 kg of weight loss in three months circulates widely and is roughly three times what the randomised phase 3 found over a longer period. Retrospective cohorts of people who chose a treatment and stayed on it select for responders. The randomised number is the honest one.
A note on what Chinese approval does and does not tell you. China's National Medical Products Administration requires trials in Chinese patients, and the pivotal trials behind these approvals are real randomised controlled trials published in mainstream journals, several of them in Diabetologia, Nature Communications, Diabetes Obesity and Metabolism and the Lancet regional title. What is usually missing compared with the Western incretin programmes is a cardiovascular outcome trial. Semaglutide and liraglutide carry cardiovascular outcome data in tens of thousands of patients followed for years; none of the compounds on this page does. So the correct statement is that these drugs are shown to lower glycated haemoglobin and body weight in Chinese adults over months, not that they are shown to prevent heart attacks. That gap is a real difference in the evidence, and it is separate from the question of whether a Western reader has heard of the drug.
The evidence, charted
Fig. 1 · evidence composition
3of 4 citations (75%) are in people
Counted from the citation list on this page. The Human count is the same number shown in the badge at the top. Both understate any literature larger than the sources we cite.
Fig. 2 · evidence over time
Evidence spans 3 distinct years, 2019 to 2024, counted from the citation list on this page.
Fig. 3 · legal status at a glance
US
Not approved
UK
Not approved
AU
Not approved
CA
Not approved
Not approved in any of the four jurisdictions shown. A jurisdiction's classification is a regulatory fact, not a verdict on the science; see Legal status below for the full text and any notes.
Fig. 4 · dose response
No human dose response curve exists
We draw this figure where the data supports it. For this compound in humans it does not, so the panel stays empty rather than borrowing an animal curve and implying it transfers.
Key studies & citations
- Human2024
Beinaglutide for weight management in Chinese individuals with overweight or obesity: A phase 3 randomized controlled clinical study
Multicentre double-blind placebo-controlled phase 3 in 427 non-diabetic Chinese adults, randomised 2:1 to 0.2 mg subcutaneously three times daily or placebo for 16 weeks. Mean body weight change was minus 6.0 percent against minus 2.4 percent, a difference of 3.6 percentage points. 58.2 percent versus 25.4 percent lost at least 5 percent and 21.3 percent versus 5.1 percent lost at least 10 percent. Nausea occurred in 49.3 percent against 7.1 percent, and 5.9 percent discontinued for adverse events against 0.7 percent. Weight regain 12 weeks after stopping was reported at 0.78 percent.
Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism - Human2024
Pharmacokinetics and safety profiles of beinaglutide injection, a recombinant human GLP-1, in adults with overweight/obesity: results from a phase I clinical trial
Open-label single-centre multiple ascending dose phase 1 in 16 overweight or obese Chinese volunteers at 0.1, 0.14 and 0.2 mg three times daily. Concentrations peaked around 15 minutes with a median time to maximum concentration of 10 to 15 minutes, exposure rose in proportion to dose, and no accumulation occurred with repeated dosing. A sex difference in pharmacokinetics was observed. Sixteen people; this establishes how the drug behaves in blood, not whether it works.
Frontiers in Pharmacology - Human2019
Beinaglutide showed significant weight-loss benefit and effective glycaemic control for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in a real-world setting: a 3-month, multicentre, observational, retrospective, open-label study
Retrospective observational data on 314 Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes treated between 2017 and 2018. After three months, weight fell 10.05 kg and glycated haemoglobin 2.87 percentage points, with 84.96 percent losing at least 5 percent of body weight. These figures are far larger than the randomised phase 3 produced, which is what uncontrolled retrospective selection does to effect estimates, and they should not be quoted as the drug's effect size.
Obesity Science and Practice - Animal2021
Recombinant human GLP-1 beinaglutide regulates lipid metabolism of adipose tissues in diet-induced obese mice
Diet-induced obese mice. Treated animals showed lower body weight, fat mass and plasma lipids, improved insulin sensitivity in white adipose tissue, and changes in the content and composition of glycerolipids, glycerophospholipids and sphingolipids alongside altered expression of lipid metabolism genes. A mouse mechanism study; none of these lipidomic endpoints has been measured in a human trial of this drug.
iScience
Frequently asked questions
Why is beinaglutide injected three times a day?
Because it is unmodified human GLP-1. Native GLP-1 is degraded and cleared within minutes, and this drug has no fatty acid chain, amino acid substitution or fused protein domain to slow that down. Concentrations peak within about fifteen minutes of injection and then fall, so it is given before each main meal.
How much weight do people lose on it?
In the 427 person randomised phase 3, 6.0 percent over 16 weeks against 2.4 percent on placebo, with 58 percent losing at least 5 percent and 21 percent losing at least 10 percent. A widely quoted retrospective study reports 10 kg in three months; that figure comes from uncontrolled observational data and should not be treated as the drug's effect.
Is it as good as semaglutide?
For weight loss, no, and not by a small margin. Semaglutide 2.4 mg trials report weight loss in the mid-teens over 68 weeks; this reports 6 percent over 16 weeks. No trial has compared them directly, and the difference in trial length makes any indirect comparison rough.
Is it approved anywhere?
In China. It has been marketed there for type 2 diabetes and received a weight management indication from the National Medical Products Administration in July 2023. It has no approval in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia or Canada.
Does being identical to the human hormone make it safer?
It removes one category of concern, immunogenicity against a foreign sequence, which is a real issue for exendin-based and fusion-protein agonists. It does not remove the class effects: nausea occurred in 49.3 percent of participants in the phase 3 against 7.1 percent on placebo, and 5.9 percent stopped because of adverse events.