| Trial results
Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals reported topline results on November 4, 2026 from GRADUAL-3, a phase 3b study of its GLP-1 medicine bofanglutide in Chinese adults with obesity or overweight. The question was whether people who lost weight on bofanglutide every two weeks could hold it on one injection a month.
How the study worked
GRADUAL-3 followed people who finished 52 weeks of every-other-week bofanglutide in the earlier GRADUAL-1 trial and met the entry rules. They were then randomized, based on their last dose (24 mg or 48 mg), to bofanglutide or placebo once a month for 24 weeks. Everyone started on every-other-week dosing. Monthly dosing began only in the second stage, and the 24 weeks are the maintenance stage, not the whole treatment course.
Stage 1: every two weeks
Bofanglutide every two weeks for 52 weeks, in GRADUAL-1.
People who finished and met the entry rules moved on to GRADUAL-3.
Stage 2: once a month
Bofanglutide 24 mg, bofanglutide 48 mg or placebo, once a month for 24 weeks.
Randomized by last dose (24 mg or 48 mg). The release does not say whether the two stages ran back to back.
The two stages of the study. The release gives no total treatment length. Source: Gan & Lee release, November 4, 2026.
What the company reported
Average body weight changed by 0.41% in the 24 mg monthly group and by −0.12% in the 48 mg monthly group, against 8.52% on placebo (P below 0.0001 for both). The release prints no plus signs. Read with the company's statement that monthly dosing prevented weight regain, the 0.41% and the 8.52% are increases. In plain terms, people switched to placebo regained about 8.5% of their body weight in 24 weeks, while people on monthly bofanglutide stayed within half a percent of baseline, a point the release does not define.
Weight change over the 24-week maintenance stage, percent
Company-reported, monthly dosing
Weight change in GRADUAL-3 over 24 weeks. Bars start at zero and show how far average weight moved. Weight rose in the 24 mg and placebo groups and fell slightly in the 48 mg group. Plus signs are inferred from the company's regain wording; the release prints 0.41%, −0.12% and 8.52%. Source: Gan & Lee release, November 4, 2026.
The company also said waist size, blood pressure and blood fats held steady and that most side effects were mild to moderate stomach and gut effects, with no new safety signals. It gave no numbers for those.
What the release does not say
- The study is a company topline. Full results are planned for a conference and a journal.
- The number of people in each group is not given, and the release does not define "baseline".
- No group stayed on every-other-week dosing, so the study cannot say whether monthly dosing works as well as carrying on.
- Only people who completed 52 weeks and met the entry rules were included.
- All participants were Chinese adults.
Where bofanglutide stands
This release reports trial results. It does not announce an approval, and the Atlas pipeline lists bofanglutide in phase 3. The doses above are the ones the trial tested. They are not a dosing guide.
For context, a phase 2b trial in 340 Chinese adults, published in February 2026, reported weight changes of −9.75% to −16.69% at week 30 with bofanglutide every two weeks or weekly, against −1.15% on placebo. What other trials found when treatment was stepped down or stopped is on the weight regain after stopping page.
Worth knowing: This is a company-reported topline, not yet peer reviewed. It covers only people who had already finished a year of treatment, so it says nothing about starting treatment on a monthly schedule.
Follow bofanglutide on the tracker. Gan & Lee's bofanglutide is in phase 3. The next date in the trial registry is a Phase 3 trial completion on Jun 30, 2027, and registry dates can move. Every dated trial completion for bofanglutide is on the pipeline tracker, each with its source.
Related: Weight regain after stopping | Drug pipeline
Source: Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals, GRADUAL-3 topline release, PR Newswire, November 4, 2026 Company announcement, not peer reviewed. Ji L, et al., bofanglutide phase 2b trial in Chinese adults, Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, 2026 (PMID 41760612) Journal article.