Eccogene Announces First Patient Enrolled in MIST Phase 2a Trial Evaluating ECC4703 as an Adjunct to Semaglutide for the Treatment of Obesity
Eccogene, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation oral small molecule therapeutics for chronic cardiometabolic and inflammatory conditions, today announced that the first patient has been enrolled in MIST, the company’s Phase 2a clinical trial evaluating ECC4703 as an adjunct to semaglutide in adults with obesity.
“While GLP-1–based therapies have established a new standard of care, important questions remain regarding tolerability, body composition, and overall quality of weight loss,” said Jingye Zhou, Chief Executive Officer of Eccogene.
The MIST trial is designed to assess the potential additive or synergistic effects of ECC4703 in combination with a GLP-1 receptor agonist. In this study, participants receive injectable semaglutide once weekly, with ECC4703 or placebo administered orally once daily. The trial will evaluate the contribution of ECC4703 to weight loss and other pharmacodynamic measures over 12 weeks of treatment.
“We are pleased to advance ECC4703 into this Phase 2a study in obesity,” said Jingye Zhou, Chief Executive Officer of Eccogene. “While GLP-1–based therapies have established a new standard of care, important questions remain regarding tolerability, body composition, and overall quality of weight loss. Our preclinical data suggest ECC4703 may contribute to deeper weight reduction driven primarily by fat mass loss over lean mass loss, and, to our knowledge, we are one of the first in the industry to test this hypothesis in a robustly designed clinical trial.”
MIST (Metabolic Intervention with Semaglutide and THR-β) is a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2a trial expected to enroll approximately 160 adults with obesity. The primary endpoints include changes in body weight and liver fat content as assessed by MRI-PDFF. Secondary and exploratory endpoints include additional metabolic parameters, safety, and tolerability.
“Obesity is not a single-pathway disease, and for many patients, monotherapy simply doesn’t address the full metabolic burden,” said Julio Rosenstock, MD, Lead Investigator and Eccogene’s Senior Scientific Advisor. “By combining semaglutide with ECC4703, a selective thyroid hormone receptor-beta agonist designed to act in the liver, we’re exploring whether a dual-mechanism approach can meaningfully enhance metabolic control—particularly by further reducing liver fat—beyond what GLP-1 therapy alone can achieve.”
About ECC4703
ECC4703 is an oral, once-daily, selective, liver-targeting full agonist of thyroid hormone receptor beta (THR-β) in development for the treatment of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) and other cardiometabolic diseases. As a full agonist, ECC4703 engages THR-β with high intrinsic activity, modulating pathways involved in lipid metabolism, hepatic fat clearance, and inflammation. In Phase 1 clinical studies, ECC4703 demonstrated target engagement and statistically significant reductions in LDL-C and related lipid biomarkers, supporting its potential to address underlying metabolic drivers across multiple indications.
About Eccogene
Eccogene is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation oral small molecule therapeutics for chronic cardiometabolic and inflammatory conditions. The Company’s diverse pipeline leverages deep expertise in translational research and small molecule drug discovery to address high-impact diseases with significant unmet need. For more information, please visit www.eccogene.com or follow the company on LinkedIn.
Contacts
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