SHANGHAI, Oct 27 (Reuters) - China's Innovent Biologics ( IVBXF )

said on Monday its GLP-1 injection led to more weight

loss and better control of blood sugar in patients with diabetes

than injectable semaglutide, the active ingredient in Novo

Nordisk's diabetes and weight-loss medicines.

The late-stage head-to-head trial compared different doses

of the two drugs in patients with diabetes and obesity to assess

glycemic control and weight loss. One group received a 6 mg dose

of the mazdutide drug that Innovent develops and the other a 1

mg dose of injectable semaglutide.

Innovent, which secured exclusive development and

commercialisation rights in China for mazdutide from Eli Lilly ( LLY )

under undisclosed financial terms in 2019, is also

approved in China to sell that drug as a treatment for type 2

diabetes.

It is one of a number of Chinese weight loss and diabetes

drugmakers ramping up competition with Novo and Lilly in the

world's second-largest pharmaceutical market.

Novo sells injectable semaglutide for patients with type 2

diabetes in China under the brand name Ozempic to control blood

sugar.

In the trial, which enrolled 349 adults with type 2 diabetes

and obesity, mazdutide showed greater improvements in both HbA1C

- a measure of blood sugar over time - and weight reduction.

Patients who took Innovent's drug at the 6 mg dose lost a

mean of 10.29% of their weight from baseline compared to 6% with

the 1 mg dose of injectable semaglutide. Innovent's drug also

lowered patients' HbA1C by a mean of 2.03, compared to 1.84 for

the 1 mg dose of injectable semaglutide.

"The head-to-head DREAMS-3 study comparing mazdutide with

semaglutide further showed that in patients with T2D and

comorbid obesity mazdutide provides superior efficacy in both

weight loss and glucose lowering," Innovent's chief R&D officer

of general biomedicine, Lei Qian, said in a statement.

A Novo Nordisk spokesperson did not immediately respond to a

request for comment sent outside of normal business hours.

(Reporting by Andrew Silver in Shanghai; Editing by Muralikumar

Anantharaman)