In short
Cagrilintide is a long-acting analogue of amylin, developed by Novo Nordisk under the code AM833 and administered once weekly by subcutaneous injection in every published trial. It is an investigational compound: no regulator has approved it, so it has no brand name and no approved indication. The essentials:
- Class: amylin analogue acting at the amylin receptors and the calcitonin receptor, a different pathway from GLP-1
- Dosing in trials: once weekly subcutaneously, against three daily injections for the earlier amylin analogue pramlintide
- Monotherapy data: 10.8 % body weight change at week 26 versus 3.0 % on placebo, phase 2, n=706 (Lau 2021, Lancet)
- Combination data: 20.4 % at week 68 versus 3.0 % on placebo as CagriSema, n=3,417 (NEJM 2025)
- Status: not approved by the FDA or the EMA, sold only as reference material for laboratory research
Everything below refers to published research and to sourcing material for laboratory purposes, not to use in humans.
What is cagrilintide?
Cagrilintide is a chemically modified version of amylin, the hormone that the beta cells of the pancreas release alongside insulin at every meal. Native amylin cannot be used as a therapeutic because it aggregates into amyloid fibrils, so the molecule was redesigned to resist aggregation and to survive far longer in circulation. The design work is documented in Development of Cagrilintide, a Long-Acting Amylin Analogue (J Med Chem, 2021).
Two properties define it. First, it is a dual agonist: it activates the amylin receptor complexes and the calcitonin receptor rather than a single target. The binding geometry behind that was resolved structurally in Nat Commun 2025. Second, the weight effect is centrally mediated. In knockout work published in EBioMedicine 2025 the ability of cagrilintide to lower body weight depended on brain amylin receptors 1 and 3, which locates the mechanism in the central nervous system rather than in the gut.
For reference on a certificate, the molecule has a molecular weight of 3,924.38 Da and CAS number 1415456-99-3.
What is the half-life of cagrilintide?
No half-life figure for cagrilintide appears in the primary development paper or in the phase 2 report. What the literature states is the dosing interval: cagrilintide is given once weekly by subcutaneous injection, which is the practical answer to the question and the only one supported by a citable source. Any specific number of hours circulating on forums should be treated as unsourced until you can trace it to a pharmacokinetic publication.
The contrast that makes the design meaningful is pramlintide, the first-generation amylin analogue approved in 2005. Pramlintide required three injections a day because of its short half-life, an impractical regimen that limited its use. Cagrilintide was engineered with a fatty acid modification specifically to move from three doses a day to one dose a week, and the trials are built on that interval.
Does cagrilintide have a brand name?
No. A brand name belongs to an approved medicine, and cagrilintide is not approved anywhere. It exists in the literature under its development code AM833 and its generic name cagrilintide. The name people often mistake for a brand is CagriSema, and that is not a brand either: it is the working name of the fixed combination of cagrilintide with semaglutide that is still in clinical development.
This matters commercially as well as scientifically. A vendor advertising a brand name for cagrilintide is either confusing it with an approved semaglutide product or is describing something the regulatory record does not contain. Neither is a good sign about the rest of the offer.
What the clinical data show
Cagrilintide has been studied both on its own and in combination with semaglutide, and the two produce very different numbers. The figures below are quoted with year, group size and time point, because a percentage without those three is not comparable to anything.
| Study | Year | n | Regimen | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lau, phase 2, Lancet | 2021 | 706 | cagrilintide 4.5 mg, once weekly | 10.8 % body weight change at week 26, placebo 3.0 % |
| REDEFINE 1, NEJM | 2025 | 3,417 | cagrilintide plus semaglutide | 20.4 % at week 68, placebo 3.0 % |
| Jastreboff, phase 2, NEJM | 2023 | 338 | retatrutide 12 mg, once weekly | 24.2 % at week 48, placebo 2.1 % |
The retatrutide row is included for scale, not as a head to head comparison. The trials differ in duration, population and design, and no study has compared these molecules directly.
Cagri-reta: is cagrilintide combined with retatrutide?
No published clinical trial has combined cagrilintide with retatrutide. The combination that exists in the literature is CagriSema, cagrilintide plus semaglutide, and that is the source of every combination figure quoted for cagrilintide. The term cagri-reta comes from online discussion, not from a trial register entry or a peer-reviewed report.
The reasoning behind the real combination is additive rather than redundant. Amylin signalling and GLP-1 signalling are separate satiety pathways, so pairing them addresses two mechanisms at once instead of pushing harder on one. Retatrutide is a different proposition again: a single molecule acting on three receptors, GIP, GLP-1 and glucagon, rather than two molecules acting on two pathways. Treating cagri-reta as an established protocol attributes evidence to it that does not exist.
Cagrilintide compared with GLP-1 agonists
They are not variants of the same idea. Cagrilintide is an amylin analogue and semaglutide is a GLP-1 receptor agonist, which is precisely why they are studied together rather than against each other.
| Cagrilintide | Semaglutide | |
|---|---|---|
| Class | Amylin analogue | GLP-1 receptor agonist |
| Main receptors | Amylin receptors plus calcitonin receptor | GLP-1 |
| Dosing in trials | Once weekly, subcutaneous | Once weekly, subcutaneous |
| Regulatory status | Investigational, not approved | Approved as a medicine |
| Studied together as | CagriSema | CagriSema |
What to check before buying cagrilintide
Documentation quality separates usable research material from an anonymous vial, and the check is the same for every peptide: a batch specific certificate of analysis, HPLC purity presented with its chromatogram, and identity confirmed by mass spectrometry.
- Batch number on the certificate. It is the only thing that links the document to the vial in your hand. A generic certificate describes some batch, somewhere.
- Chromatogram with the purity figure. The number is a summary, the chromatogram is the data behind it.
- Mass spectrometry identity. Purity says how much of something is present, mass spectrometry says what that something is. A batch can be 99 percent pure and be the wrong molecule.
- An independent signing laboratory. An analysis by the seller and an analysis by an independent laboratory are not the same evidence. Molequa® batches are analysed by Janoshik Analytical, an independent laboratory specialising in peptide analysis.
- No human dosing guidance. A supplier that publishes one has stepped outside the framework in which these substances are legally sold.
The full method, including what a chromatogram should look like, is set out in our guide on how to verify a peptide supplier.
Where to buy cagrilintide for research
For laboratories in the EU the practical route is an EU supplier with documented batches: cagrilintide at Molequa® is supplied as a lyophilised powder with a declared purity of ≥ 99 % and a certificate of analysis with the released batch, dispatched from within the EU. Related reference materials sit in the metabolic research peptides category.
| Format | Price | Price per mg |
|---|---|---|
| Vial 5 mg | 80.90 € | 16.18 € |
| Vial 10 mg | 152.90 € | 15.29 € |
Price per milligram is the only honest comparison between suppliers, because vials differ in fill. Cagrilintide is currently on reservation: after a reservation request we contact you once a new batch is released. Reconstitution requires bacteriostatic water, which costs 3.65 € instead of 8.90 € when ordered with a peptide.
Frequently asked questions
What is the half-life of cagrilintide? No half-life value is stated in the primary development paper or the phase 2 report. What the literature does state is the dosing interval: once weekly by subcutaneous injection, compared with three daily injections for the earlier analogue pramlintide.
Does cagrilintide have a brand name? No. Brand names belong to approved medicines and cagrilintide is investigational. It appears in the literature as cagrilintide or under the development code AM833. CagriSema is the working name of the combination with semaglutide, not a brand of cagrilintide.
What is CagriSema? The fixed combination of cagrilintide with semaglutide, studied in the REDEFINE programme. In REDEFINE 1 with 3,417 participants it produced a 20.4 percent body weight change at week 68 against 3.0 percent on placebo.
Is cagri-reta a real protocol? Not in the published literature. No trial has combined cagrilintide with retatrutide. The documented combination is cagrilintide with semaglutide.
Is cagrilintide approved? No. It has no approval from the FDA, the EMA or any other regulator. It is sold exclusively as reference material for laboratory research, not for human consumption, diagnosis or treatment.
How is cagrilintide stored? The lyophilisate is kept at 2 to 8 °C and protected from light. After reconstitution with bacteriostatic water the literature describes stability on the order of 28 days under refrigeration and sterile handling.
Legal notice
All Molequa® products are intended exclusively for laboratory and scientific research (Research Use Only). They are not medicines, food supplements or cosmetics and are not intended for human or animal consumption. The trial data cited above describe published research findings; they are not health or application advice, and this page states no human dosing.
