Hanmi Pharmaceutical Confirms Potential of New Obesity Drug to Improve Muscle Mass and Obesity in Preclinical Studies

On August 5, Hanmi Pharmaceutical announced that its preclinical studies of the obesity treatment 'HM17321' in development have confirmed the potential for the drug to improve obesity while also enhancing metabolic health, such as by increasing muscle mass, in humans.

A Hanmi Pharm employee is explaining the preclinical research poster of the obesity treatment HM17321 at a bioinformatics conference held in Liverpool, UK, on the 20th of last month. Photo by Hanmi Pharm

Hanmi Pharmaceutical presented these research results in a poster session at the 'ISMB/ECCB 2025', a bioinformatics academic conference held in Liverpool, United Kingdom, from July 20 to 24.

HM17321 is a urocortin (UCN) 2 analogue that selectively targets the CRF2 receptor, rather than the incretin receptor such as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). It is being developed with the goal of simultaneously increasing muscle mass and selectively reducing fat.

According to the study, a comparison of the blood proteomes of animals administered HM17321 and human blood proteomes showed that HM17321 induced changes similar to the proteomic characteristics of people with low fat mass, higher lean body mass, and stronger grip strength.

In other words, it induces changes similar to the proteome of individuals with low fat and high muscle mass.

The company evaluated that this study reconfirmed the efficacy observed in previous animal experiments and demonstrated the potential for this efficacy to be realized in humans.

Choi Inyoung, Head of Hanmi Pharmaceutical R&D Center (Executive Director), stated, "This is a meaningful achievement that proves the pharmacological effects of HM17321, which is about to enter Phase 1 clinical trials, could be reproduced in humans. We aim to establish a new paradigm of 'qualitative weight loss' that goes beyond simple weight reduction to also encompass muscle function and metabolic health, and to set a new global standard in obesity treatment."

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