Semaglutide patent expiration has passed for over a month without the appearance of a "domestic first approval."
Several filing companies claim that the approval is "temporarily delayed" due to data protection periods.

The patent for the core compound of semaglutide has expired for over a month, and there are no domestically approved Chinese-made semaglutide products yet. Recently, a reporter learned from several domestic semaglutide manufacturing companies as an investor that the relevant provisions of the China-Switzerland Free Trade Agreement may be the main reason. Among them, Jiuyuan Genetics stated, “The main reason we haven’t received approval is that the relevant data is still under protection,” “Currently (approval) is just in a suspended state, and no decision has been made whether to approve or not, so it’s hard to draw a conclusion.” Lizhu Group’s securities department said that due to the impact of the China-Switzerland Free Trade Agreement provisions, the approval process for their semaglutide is currently suspended, “From the company’s perspective, we have already submitted all the required materials, and the approval process has reached the final stage.” United Laboratories stated, “We are also waiting for approval now, and the reason why everyone hasn’t received approval is the same.” (Cailian Press)