Cagrilintide Reference
Educational, not medical advice reference for Cagrilintide: Metabolic, Fat Loss; regulatory status, evidence posture, source review, and schedul…
Plain English
- What it is
- Cagrilintide is an experimental (investigational) medicine from Novo Nordisk that is still being studied and tested. It is a long-acting amylin analog, which means a lab-made copy of a natural body hormone called amylin that helps control hunger and the feeling of being full.
- What people use it for
- In research, it is being tested to help adults who are overweight or have obesity lose weight. People who follow the GLP-1 weight-loss space watch it as a possible 'pure amylin' option, though it is now developed mainly as the amylin part of a combination shot called CagriSema (cagrilintide paired with semaglutide).
- What the science shows
- A mid-stage human trial in adults with overweight or obesity found that people taking cagrilintide lost more weight than people taking a dummy treatment (placebo) over about six months. The most common side effects were stomach and gut problems like nausea, constipation, and diarrhea, along with reactions at the spot where the shot was given.
- The catch
- Cagrilintide is not approved by the FDA on its own or in any form, and it is not legally available outside of clinical trials, so anything sold online as cagrilintide is not the studied trial drug and its real contents, strength, and safety are unknown. Most of the strong late-stage evidence is for the CagriSema combination rather than cagrilintide by itself, and whether the standalone version will be pursued is unclear.
Reference summary
Lau 2021 Lancet (Phase 2, n=706 adults with overweight or obesity, 26 weeks) tested once-weekly cagrilintide monotherapy at 0.3, 0.6, 1.2, 2.4, and 4.5 mg vs placebo and vs liraglutide 3 mg. The 2.4 mg cagrilintide dose reduced body weight by approximately 9.7 percent from baseline by week 26 (placebo-subtracted treatment difference up to about 7.8 percent), comparable to liraglutide. Cagrilintide is now developed primarily as the amylin component of CagriSema (Garvey 2025 NEJM REDEFINE-1 PMID 40544433; Davies 2025 NEJM REDEFINE-2 PMID 40544432).
Regulatory and posture
- Categories
- Metabolic, Fat Loss
- Aliases
- AM833, Long-acting amylin analog (monotherapy)
- Evidence posture
- human - Phase 2 monotherapy data published; the active Phase 3 development is the cagrilintide + semaglutide combination (CagriSema), not cagrilintide alone.
- Regulatory status
- Investigational as a monotherapy. Cagrilintide is a long-acting amylin analog developed by Novo Nordisk. The pivotal Phase 3 evidence is now in the combination product CagriSema (REDEFINE-1 and REDEFINE-2 published 2025 NEJM). There is no FDA-approved cagrilintide-only drug label.
- Content review status
- investigational verified
Selected public sources
- ClinicalTrials.gov cagrilintide (long-acting amylin analog) trial search
- PubMed: Lau et al. Lancet 2021 - once-weekly cagrilintide for weight management in people with overweight and obesity (Phase 2) (PMID 34798060)
- PubMed: Garvey et al. N Engl J Med 2025 - coadministered cagrilintide and semaglutide in adults with overweight or obesity (REDEFINE-1, Phase 3) (PMID 40544433)
Related tools
- Injection-site rotation overview - Public overview of the Pro site-rotation planner.
- Protocol builder overview - Public overview of the Pro protocol builder.
For research and educational purposes only. Not medical advice.