This entrepreneur made billions on crypto. His next frontier is outer space
But drive past cracked airstrips and barbed wire gates, and—with the right security clearance—you may be able to walk up and touch the exterior of the next orbital space station: a 2-ton cylindrical aluminum module built by the startup Vast. Called Haven-1, it currently hangs from a 50-foot-tall steel scaffold while it undergoes extreme pressure testing, one of many complicated engineering milestones it needs to hit before its planned launch in May 2026.
Before engineers can install the module's instrumentation, electronics, and life-support systems, they need to repeatedly pressurize the structure to 2.4 times Earth's atmosphere to test its workmanship. Massive hoses hooked up to a trio of multistory liquid nitrogen tankers inflate the station—an isogrid metal shell that resembles a waffle cone—with nitrogen gas, like a kid's birthday balloon. Observers need to stand at least 236 feet away in case bolts or brackets burst. During a visit in May, workers were welding and reinforcing the steel scaffold to make sure the structure can withstand a grueling and aggressive series of stress tests that will see the cabin inflated and deflated 200 times in a row.
Vast is racing against the clock to launch the world's first commercial space station—independently, in-house, and in record time. It's an audacious effort, made possible by the retirement of an icon: the International Space Station, a fixture of childhood imaginations and of humanity's exploration of space since its first section was launched in 1998. It's now set to be decommissioned in 2030, via a guided crash into the Pacific Ocean, and Vast wants to replace it.
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2 hours ago
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Night sky, July 2025: What you can see tonight [maps]
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Top telescope pick! Looking for a telescope for the next night sky event? We recommend the Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ as the top pick for basic astrophotography in our best beginner's telescope guide. The night sky tonight and on any clear night offers an ever-changing display of fascinating objects you can see, from stars and constellations to bright planets, the moon, and sometimes special events like meteor showers. Observing the night sky can be done with no special equipment, although a sky map can be very useful, and a good telescope or binoculars will enhance some experiences and bring some otherwise invisible objects into view. You can also use astronomy accessories to make your observing easier, and use our Satellite Tracker page powered by to find out when and how to see the International Space Station and other satellites. We also have a helpful guide on how you can see and track a Starlink satellite train. You can also capture the night sky by using any of the best cameras for astrophotography, along with a selection of the best lenses for astrophotography. Read on to find out what's up in the night sky tonight (planets visible now, moon phases, observing highlights this month) plus other resources (skywatching terms, night sky observing tips and further reading) Related: The brightest planets in the night sky: How to see them (and when) Monthly skywatching information is provided to by Chris Vaughan of Starry Night Education, the leader in space science curriculum solutions. Follow Starry Night on Twitter @StarryNightEdu and Chris at @Astrogeoguy Editor's note: If you have an amazing skywatching photo and would like to share them with readers, send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@ The moon will complete the first quarter of its orbit around Earth, measuring from the previous new moon, on Wednesday, July 2 at 3:30 p.m. EDT or 12:30 p.m. PDT, which converts to 19:30 GMT. The 90-degree angle formed by the Earth, sun, and moon at that time will cause us to see our natural satellite half-illuminated on its eastern side. At first quarter, the moon always rises around midday and sets around midnight, allowing it to be seen in the afternoon daytime sky, too. The evenings surrounding the first quarter phase are the best ones for viewing the lunar terrain when it is dramatically lit by low-angled sunlight. Several times a year, near the moon's first quarter phase, small clair-obscur effect features on the moon called the Lunar X and the Lunar V become visible in strong binoculars and backyard telescopes for a few hours. The Lunar X, a prominent X-shaped pattern, appears when the rims of the craters Purbach, la Caille, and Blanchinus are illuminated from a particular angle of sunlight (inset). Look for it beside the terminator about one-third of the way up from the southern pole of the Moon. The Lunar V forms along the northern span of the terminator near the crater Ukert. On Wednesday, July 2, the features are predicted to start developing by about 9 p.m. EDT (or 01:00 GMT on Thursday, July 3), peak in intensity at around 10:15 p.m. EDT (or 0215 GMT on July 3), and then gradually fade out toward midnight Eastern time. The event will occur during waning daylight for observers in western North America, but you can observe the moon in a telescope during the daytime, as long as you take care to avoid aiming it near the sun. The Lunar X will be visible anywhere on Earth where the moon is shining, especially in a dark sky, between 01:00 and 04:00 GMT on July 3. On Thursday, July 3, at 4:00 p.m. EDT, 1:00 p.m. PDT, or 20:00 GMT, Earth will reach aphelion, its greatest distance from the sun for this year. Aphelion's 94.51 million miles (152.09 million km) distance is 1.67% farther from the sun than the mean Earth-sun separation of 92.96 million miles (149.6 million km), which is also defined to be 1 Astronomical Unit (1 A.U.). Seasonal temperature variations arise from the Earth's axis of rotation tilting towards and away from the sun, and not from our distance from the sun. Earth will reach its minimum distance from the sun, or perihelion, on January 4, 2026. After sunset on Thursday evening, July 3, Mercury (orbit shown in red) will stretch to its widest separation of 25.9 degrees east of the sun, and its maximum visibility, for its current apparition. This appearance of the planet will be reasonably good for both Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere observers. The optimal viewing time at mid-northern latitudes will commence around 9 p.m. local time. Viewed in a telescope (inset) the planet will exhibit a waning, nearly half-illuminated phase. As the sky darkens, watch for the scattered stars of the Beehive cluster, aka Messier 44, spread out to Mercury's upper right (or celestial north), and Cancer's medium bright star Delta Cancri shining to Mercury's upper left (or celestial east). Mercury will pass very close to that star on the following evening, July 4. When the sky darkens after dusk on Thursday, July 3, Virgo's brightest star Spica will appear just to the upper right of the waxing gibbous moon in the southwestern sky. Until they set after midnight, the duo will share the view in binoculars (orange circle). Observers viewing the pair later, or in more westerly time zones, will see the moon's easterly orbital motion carry it farther from the star. Hours earlier, that motion will cause the moon to pass in front of Spica for skywatchers located at the extreme southern end of South America and most of Antarctica. The brilliant planet Venus will dominate the eastern predawn sky for most of this year while it slowly swings back toward the sun. On the mornings surrounding Friday, July 4, Venus will pass close enough to Uranus to allow early risers to use Venus to locate the far fainter planet in binoculars (orange circle). On the previous mornings, the magnitude 5.8, blue-green speck of Uranus will shine several finger widths to Venus' left (or 3.5 degrees to its celestial northeast). At their closest approach on Friday, the distant planet will be about half that distance to Venus' upper left (or celestial north). From Saturday onward, Uranus will shift farther above Venus, but they will share the view in binoculars until about July 9. Watch for the bright Pleiades star cluster above Uranus. On Saturday night, July 5, the terminator on the waxing gibbous moon will fall just west of Sinus Iridum, the Bay of Rainbows. The circular 155-mile (249 km) diameter feature is a large impact crater that was flooded by the same basalts that filled the much larger Mare Imbrium to its east, forming a rounded handle-shaped feature on the western edge of that mare. The "Golden Handle" effect is produced by the way the slanted sunlight brightly illuminates the eastern side of the prominent Montes Jura mountain range surrounding the bay on the north and west, and by a pair of protruding promontories named Heraclides and Laplace to the south and north, respectively. Sinus Iridum is almost craterless, but hosts a set of northeast-oriented dorsae or "wrinkle ridges" that are revealed at this phase. In the southern sky after dusk on Monday, July 7, the prominent reddish star Antares will be twinkling several finger widths to the right of the bright, waxing gibbous moon. By the time Antares sets ahead of the moon, at around 2:30 a.m. local time, the rotation of the sky will have shifted it lower than the moon. About half a day earlier, residents of the southern tip of Africa, the Kerguelen Islands, and easternmost Antarctica can watch the moon occult Antares using their unaided eyes or through binoculars and backyard telescopes. Antares marks the heart of Scorpius, the Scorpion, and is frequently visited by the moon and planets. On the nights around Wednesday, July 9, the ringed planet Saturn will finally begin to rise before midnight for observers located at mid-northern latitudes, making Saturn available for evening viewing again after a long absence. During the wee hours, the bright, creamy-yellow planet will climb the southeastern sky below the Great Square of Pegasus. Due to Earth's motion around the sun, the stars and distant planets rise about 4 minutes earlier each day, or about half an hour earlier with each passing week. Saturn will be returning just a few weeks before the red dot of Mars disappears into the western twilight. Then Saturn will reign until Jupiter enters the evening sky around mid-October. The moon will reach its full phase on Thursday, July 10, at 4:37 p.m. EDT or 1:37 p.m. PDT and 20:37 GMT. The July full moon, commonly called the Buck Moon, Thunder Moon, or Hay Moon, always shines in or near the stars of Sagittarius or Capricornus. The indigenous Ojibwe people of the Great Lakes region call this moon Abitaa-niibini Giizis, the Halfway Summer Moon, or Mskomini Giizis, the Raspberry Moon. The Cherokees call it Guyegwoni, the Corn in Tassel Moon. The Cree Nation of central Canada calls the July full moon Opaskowipisim, the Feather Moulting Moon (referring to wild waterfowl habits), and the Mohawks call it Ohiarihkó:wa, the Fruits are Ripened Moon. The moon only appears full when it is opposite the sun in the sky, so full moons always rise in the east as the sun is setting, and set in the west at sunrise. Since sunlight is hitting the moon face-on at that time, no shadows are cast. All the variations in brightness you see arise from differences in the reflectivity, or albedo, of the lunar surface rocks. Summertime full moons are as low in the sky as the winter noonday sun. After dusk in mid-July, the first stars to appear in the darkening eastern sky are Vega, Deneb, and Altair. Those three bright, white stars form the Summer Triangle asterism - an annual feature of the summer sky that remains visible until the end of December! The highest and most easterly of the trio is Vega, in Lyra. At magnitude 0.03, Vega is the brightest star in the summer sky, mainly due to its relative proximity. It's only 25 light-years away from the sun. Magnitude 0.75 Altair, in Aquila, occupies the lower right (southern) corner of the triangle. Altair is 17 light-years from the sun. By contrast, Deneb, which shines somewhat less brightly at magnitude 1.25, is a staggering 2,600 light-years away from us, but it shines so brightly because of its greater intrinsic luminosity. Once the bright moon departs next week, watch for the Milky Way passing between Vega and Altair and through Deneb. On Monday morning, July 14, the regular eastward motion of Saturn through the background stars of western Pisces will slow to a stop as it prepares to execute a westerly retrograde loop (red curve) that will last until the end of November. The apparent reversal in Saturn's motion is an effect of parallax produced when Earth, on a faster orbit closer to the sun, passes the Ringed Planet on the "inside track". Saturn's retrograde loop will altogether cover about a palm's width (or 7 degrees) of the celestial sphere, though there aren't any bright stars near Saturn to make that motion obvious. A short time after the bright, waning gibbous moon clears the treetops in the east around midnight on Tuesday evening, July 15, the prominent, yellowish dot of Saturn will climb to join it, close enough to the moon for them to share the view in binoculars (orange circle). The very faint blue planet Neptune will be positioned just a finger's width above Saturn, but a telescope will be required to see it well. The trio will cross the sky together and shine about halfway up the southern sky as dawn breaks on Wednesday morning. The moon will complete three-quarters of its orbit around Earth, measured from the previous new moon, on Thursday, July 17, at 8:38 p.m. EDT or 5:38 p.m. PDT, which converts to Friday at 02:52 GMT. At the third (or last) quarter phase, the moon appears half-illuminated on its western, sunward side. It will rise around midnight local time, and then remain visible until it sets in the western daytime sky in early afternoon. Third quarter moons are positioned ahead of the Earth in our trip around the Sun. About 3½ hours later, Earth will occupy that same location in space. The week of dark, moonless evening skies that follow this phase are the best ones for observing deep sky targets. After dusk in mid-July, the distinctive constellation of Scorpius, the Scorpion, reaches its peak elevation over the southern horizon. The constellation's brightest star is orange-tinted Antares, the "Rival of Mars". Several medium-bright, white stars arranged in a roughly vertical line to the west of Antares mark the creature's claws on modern sky charts; however, the major stars of neighboring Libra used to perform that role. The rest of the scorpion extends to the south and curls to the left (celestial eastward) into the Milky Way, terminating with the bright double star Shaula, which marks its poisonous stinger. Observers at high mid-northern latitudes might not be able to see the southernmost stars of the constellation. In the eastern sky before dawn on Sunday morning, July 20, the pretty, waning crescent moon will shine very close to the bright little Pleiades Star Cluster (aka The Seven Sisters, Subaru, and Messier 45) in Taurus. The pairing will show nicely in binoculars (orange circle). For skywatchers in the Americas, the moon will pass directly through the cluster's stars starting at about 4:25 a.m. EDT or 08:25 GMT. By the time the moon completes its passage around two hours later, the sky will be brightening in the Eastern and Central time zones, but it will still be dark in the Pacific Time zone. Keep an eye out for the blue-green speck of Uranus to the lower right of the Pleiades all year. After 24 hours of additional eastward motion, the more slender crescent of the waning moon will make a lovely sight while it shines above the brilliant planet Venus in the east before sunrise on Monday, July 21. The pair can be enjoyed and photographed between the time that Venus rises at about 3 a.m. local time and sunrise. The very bright planet Jupiter will gleam to their lower left once it rises at around 4 a.m. local time. On Tuesday morning, the moon will shift to a position between Jupiter and Venus. The old crescent moon will complete its visit with the bright morning planets on Wednesday, July 22, when its slim, 2.5%-illuminated sliver will shine less than a palm's width to the left (or 5 degrees to the celestial northeast) of brilliant Jupiter. Before the sun begins to rise, you can place Jupiter on the right edge of your binoculars' field of view (orange circle) and find the moon on the left. On Thursday, July 24, at 3:11 p.m. EDT or 12:11 p.m. PDT, or 19:11 GMT, the moon will officially reach its new moon phase. At that time, our natural satellite will be located in Cancer, 3.4 degrees north of the sun. While new, the moon is travelling in space between Earth and the sun. Since sunlight can only illuminate the far side of the moon, and the moon is in the same region of the sky as the sun, it becomes completely hidden from view from anywhere on Earth for about a day (unless there's a solar eclipse). After the new moon phase, Earth's celestial night-light will return to shine as a crescent in the western evening sky. On the nights surrounding Friday morning, July 25, the dim and distant dwarf planet designated (134340) Pluto will reach opposition for 2025. On that date, the Earth will be positioned between Pluto and the sun, minimizing our distance from that outer world and maximizing Pluto's visibility. While at opposition, Pluto will be located 3.28 billion miles, 5.28 billion km, or 285 light-minutes from Earth. Unfortunately, it will shine with an extremely faint visual magnitude of +14.4 that is far too dim for visual observing through a small backyard telescope. Pluto will be located in southwestern Capricornus, about a palm's width to the upper right (or 5.9 degrees to the celestial WNW) of the medium-bright star Psi Capricorni and to the lower left of the globular star cluster Messier 75. Even if you can't see Pluto directly, you will know that it is there. For a short time after sunset on Saturday, July 26, the extremely slender crescent of the young moon will shine above the western horizon. As the sky darkens, Leo's brightest star Regulus, will appear just to the lower right (or celestial west) of the moon — close enough for them to share the view in binoculars (orange circle). Observers closer to the tropics, where the ecliptic will be more vertical, will see their conjunction more easily. As the sky begins to darken after dusk on Monday, July 28, look low in the western sky for reddish Mars shining several finger widths to the upper right (or 3 degrees to the celestial north) of the waxing moon's slender crescent — close enough for them to share the view in binoculars (orange circle). Since the moon continuously slides east by its own diameter every hour, observers in Europe and Africa will see the moon close below Mars, while those in the western Americas and the Pacific Ocean region will see the moon farther to the left of Mars. The annual Southern Delta-Aquariids meteor shower lasts from July 18 to August 21. In 2025, it will peak during the wee hours of Tuesday morning, July 29, in the Americas, but it is quite active for a week surrounding the peak night. The best viewing time will run from late Monday evening until the sky starts to brighten on Tuesday morning. The waxing crescent moon will not affect the shower this year. The Southern Delta-Aquariids shower, produced by debris dropped from the periodic Comet 96P/Machholz, commonly generates 15-20 meteors per hour at the peak. It is best enjoyed from the southern tropics, where the shower's radiant, in southern Aquarius, climbs higher in the sky. After a previous visit on July 3, the moon's trip around Earth will bring it back to shine near Virgo's brightest star Spica, again on Wednesday evening, July 30. As darkness falls, look low in the western sky for bright, white Spica twinkling several finger widths to the upper left (or celestial east) of the pretty crescent moon. Skywatchers located in more westerly time zones will see the moon closer to the star, clear evidence of our natural satellite's orbital motion. As July opens, Mercury will continue a rather poor appearance in the western sky after sunset for observers located at mid-northern latitudes, but a favorable one when viewing it from the tropics and farther south. The innermost planet will reach its widest angle 25.9 degrees east of the sun on July 3 and then remain just above the western horizon for a short period after sunset until about mid-month. After that, it will rapidly drop sunward and disappear. From an initial magnitude of 0.3 on July 1, Mercury will diminish considerably in brightness through the month's end. Viewed in a telescope (but only after the sun has completely set), Mercury's orbital motion toward inferior solar conjunction on July 31 will reduce its phase from 45%-illuminated to a slim crescent, and grow its apparent size from 7.8 to nearly 11 arc-seconds. Mercury will skim the southern edge of the Beehive cluster in Cancer for several evenings surrounding July 2, though the conjunction will be best viewed in binoculars from equatorial latitudes. During July, Venus will continue to dominate the eastern pre-dawn sky from the time it rises, shortly before 3 a.m. local time, until sunrise. Venus' easterly motion through Taurus will reduce its angle from the sun by 5 degrees and carry it 2.4 degrees south of far fainter Uranus and the nearby Pleiades cluster on July 4. As it steadily increases its distance from Earth during July, Venus' brilliance will slightly decrease. Over the same interval, a telescope will show its disk waxing from 64% to 75% illuminated and its apparent size shrinking from 17.8 to 14.4 arc-seconds. Early risers can enjoy Venus gleaming above Aldebaran and the stars of the Hyades Cluster for about a week centered on July 11. Bright Jupiter will rise to join Venus after mid-month, setting up a lovely photo opportunity when the waning crescent moon joins them from July 21 to 23 Mars will continue to shine in the lower part of the western sky after dusk during July, though its decreasing angle from the sun will shorten its observing window daily. After a close conjunction with Regulus in late June, the reddish planet will race east across southern Leo and enter Virgo on July 28. Mars' steadily increasing distance from Earth will slightly reduce its brightness from magnitude 1.5 to 1.6 and shrink its 94%-illuminated disk size from 4.9 to 4.4 arc-seconds. After sunset on July 28, the waxing crescent moon will shine several degrees to the lower left of Mars. Following its solar conjunction on June 24, bright, magnitude -1.9 Jupiter will stretch far enough west of the sun for it to appear just above the eastern horizon before sunrise starting around mid-July — joining much brighter Venus. By the end of the month, Jupiter will rise with the stars of Gemini around it, and its angle from Venus will shrink to 12 degrees. The pretty, waning crescent moon will make for some lovely photo opportunities when it passes Venus and approaches Jupiter from July 21 to 23. After the opening days of July, Saturn will begin to rise in the east around midnight local time. As its rising time advances daily, it will climb high enough to produce fine telescope views of the ringed planet from late evening until dawn. Saturn's eastward motion through western Pisces will slow to a stop on July 14 when it begins a 7-degree wide retrograde loop that will last until late November. Saturn will brighten from magnitude 1.0 to 0.85 during July. In a telescope, its disk and rings will grow a little in apparent size. Only four months after its ring-plane crossing in March, Saturn's rings will remain narrow and its moons will continue to travel close to its ring plane, producing shadow transits of its largest moon Titan ,every 16 days. Saturn will be accompanied by 500 times fainter, magnitude 7.8 Neptune, which will appear as a dull blue "star" shining only 1 degree to its north. The waning gibbous moon will be positioned several degrees above (or celestial north of) Saturn on July 16. During July, Uranus will rise in the east with the stars of Taurus during the wee hours and attain enough elevation for telescope viewing before the onset of dawn twilight. The planet will spend this year positioned less than a binocular's field to the lower right (or about 4 degrees to the celestial SSW) of the prominent Pleiades star cluster. During July, magnitude 5.8 Uranus can be spotted as a blue-green speck in binoculars and as a small 3.5 arc-seconds-wide disk through any telescope. On July 4, the far brighter planet Venus will pass 2.4 degrees to the south of Uranus. On July 20, the waning crescent moon will shine near Uranus while making a passage through the Pleiades. Magnitude 7.9 Neptune will spend July climbing the southeastern sky from late evening until dawn and appearing as a dull blue "star" located only 1 degree north of 500 times brighter Saturn in southwestern Pisces. On July 5, the outermost planet will commence a retrograde loop that will last until mid-December. The waning gibbous moon will shine near Neptune and Saturn on July 16.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Thanks to Netflix's NASA+, You Can Go Out of This World with International Space Station Livestream
This year, we've already gotten a Sally Ride documentary and another Ryan Gosling astronaut movie, but the biggest space-centric development in 2025 is all thanks to Netflix's unprecedented partnership with NASA: meet NASA+. Starting this summer, audiences can view live NASA space expeditions and watch each second of the International Space Station capturing out of this world (literally) footage of Earth. 'The National Aeronautics and our Space Act of 1958 calls on us to share our story of space exploration with the broadest possible audience,' Rebecca Sirmons, general manager of NASA+, said in an official statement. 'Together, we're committed to a Golden Age of Innovation and Exploration — inspiring new generations — right from the comfort of their couch or in the palm of their hand from their phone.' More from IndieWire David Koepp on Why It Took Him Almost 30 Years to Return to the 'Jurassic Park' Franchise He Helped Create 'The Running Man' Trailer: Glen Powell Sprints to Survive in Edgar Wright's Take on Dystopian Stephen King Novel Audiences will be able to stream rocket launches, astronaut spacewalks, and mission coverage through the NASA+ live programming. NASA+ will be available for free, without ads, through the NASA app and on the NASA website. As today's announcement notes, the work of NASA will become 'even more accessible, allowing the agency to increase engagement with and inspire a global audience in a modern media landscape, where Netflix reaches a global audience of more than 700 million people.' Netflix has been doubling down on educational efforts in recent months: the streamer now has exclusive worldwide premiere rights for beloved PBS show 'Sesame Street.' The platform scooped the rights to the iconic series after Warner Bros. Discovery's HBO Max opted to not take on the contract again. 'Sesame Street' will continue to be available on PBS KIDS and across their digital video and games platforms to continue providing free public television. 'Sesame Street' is created by Sesame Workshop, a global nonprofit. Netflix is debuting a reimagined Season 56, as well as airing 90 hours of previous episodes and unveiling spinoff storylines. In addition to the series, Netflix will also further expand the 'Sesame Street' franchise by developing video games for both 'Sesame Street' and 'Sesame Street Mecha Builders.' Netflix also famously has been the platform for a slew of nature docs, including 'Our Living World' narrated by Cate Blanchett, and 'Our Planet' with Sir David Attenborough, Salma Hayek, and Penélope of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie Nicolas Winding Refn's Favorite Films: 37 Movies the Director Wants You to See
Scientific American
5 hours ago
- Scientific American
Could China's New GLP-1 Drugs Beat Out Ozempic?
A drug that outperforms placebo in helping people to lose weight is one of a growing number of next-generation obesity drugs being produced in China. At first, Chinese pharmaceutical companies rushed to make similar versions of blockbuster weight-loss drugs, such as Wegovy and Ozempic, that have taken the world by storm. Nowadays, China is emerging as important innovator for new drug discovery in this field, says Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist at the University of Toronto in Canada. Results from a phase III trial of ecnoglutide show that people receiving a weekly injection of the drug lost up to 13.8 kilograms over 48 weeks of treatment. By contrast, people given placebo injections lost around 200 grams. The results were published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology on 21 June. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Ecnoglutide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist analogue, similar to the blockbuster obesity drug semaglutide. These drugs mimic the hormone GLP-1, which is involved in regulating appetite and managing blood-sugar levels. Unlike semaglutide, ecnoglutide preferentially targets the production of cyclic adenosine monophosphate, a messenger molecule associated with regulating glycogen, sugar and lipid metabolism, which helps to control blood-sugar levels, as well as weight loss. The study, funded by drug manufacturer Sciwind Biosciences, based in Hangzhou, China, included 664 people given either a weekly injection of a placebo, or one of three doses of ecnoglutide. At the maximum dose of 2.4 milligrams, 92.8% of people lost at least 5% of their body weight, compared with 14% of people receiving placebo injections. People receiving ecnoglutide were also able to maintain their reduced weight after stopping treatment, regaining around 1% of their body weight over a 7-week period. Linong Ji, a co-author and a diabetes researcher at Peking University People's Hospital in Beijing, says ecnoglutide also improved risk factors for heart disease and diabetes, and reduced the amount of fat in people's livers. More drugs to come Dozens of GLP-1 drugs are being developed and tested in China, with 'many more to come', says Drucker. Among them is mazdutide, which mimics GLP-1 and glucagon, a hormone involved in blood-sugar levels. In trial results published in May, a weekly injection helped more people to lose up to 15% of their body weight over 36 weeks and reduced the risk of cardiovascular diseases compared with a placebo treatment. Developed by Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, Indiana, mazdutide is manufactured by Innovent Biologics in Suzhou, China, under an exclusive licence. Other trials are testing whether the drug can treat sleep apnoea or type 2 diabetes. The growing number of new GLP-1 drugs target multiple pathways at the same time so will result in more-tailored treatments, says Sof Andrikopoulos, a diabetes researcher at the University of Melbourne. The next generation of drugs will target specific conditions associated with diabetes and obesity, such as sleep apnoea, fatty liver disease, chronic kidney disease and heart disease, he adds. 'It'll give us options and it will make personalized medicine in obesity and diabetes more accessible.' Triple threat Another drug being developed in China, known as UBT251, is a triple agonist, mimicking GLP-1, glucagon and another hormone called gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP), which is involved in fat metabolism. UBT251 is the first biweekly injectable GLP-1 medicine and is in the early stages of testing to achieve weight loss and treat chronic kidney disease, fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes. In March, Hengqin-based manufacturer the United Laboratories entered into a US$2-billion deal with Danish firm Novo Nordisk, which developed semaglutide, giving Novo Nordisk exclusive rights to test and sell the drug outside the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Bofanglutide, developed by Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals in Beijing, is another biweekly injectable treatment, but it targets only GLP-1. A phase II trial began enrolling US participants with obesity in March to test it against a placebo and tirzepatide — sold as Mounjaro and Zepbound by Eli Lilly. Andrikopoulos says it makes sense that China is developing these drugs. 'Obesity and diabetes are major problems in Asian populations in China and in India,' he says. Studies that recruit participants in China are also important for investigating the efficacy of GLP-1 drugs in Asian populations, which could reveal differences not observed in studies from Europe or the United States. A Hong Kong-based pharmaceutical company, Ascletis, is also investigating the benefit of once-daily oral drug, called ASC30, for weight loss. Early trial results show that participants lost 6% more of their body weight on the drug than with a placebo. The company has applied for permission from the US Food and Drug Administration to run a phase II trial. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are also working on oral GLP-1 medicines.
