Cagrilintide

Cagrilintide (AM833) is a synthetic, long-acting analogue of the pancreatic hormone amylin, engineered by Novo Nordisk to overcome native amylin's extremely short half-life (~15 minutes). It is a 37-amino-acid peptide derived from the pramlintide backbone and modified with a C20 fatty diacid chain attached via a γ-glutamic acid linker, enabling reversible albumin binding — the same acylation strategy used to extend semaglutide's duration of action. The result is an approximately weekly dosing profile, with a half-life around 184 hours (~7.7 days) at the 2.4 mg dose. Cagrilintide is not approved as a drug anywhere in the world as of mid-2026. Its development trajectory is focused almost entirely on obesity, and the most advanced programme pairs it with semaglutide 2.4 mg in a fixed-ratio co-formulation called CagriSema. Phase 3 REDEFINE trials are underway. Phase 2 data in people with type 2 diabetes (T2D) demonstrated ~10.8% weight loss at 4.5 mg vs 3.0% with placebo at 26 weeks. In REDEFINE 1 (Phase 3, adults without T2D), CagriSema produced approximately 22.7% weight loss at 68 weeks (full-adherence estimand), versus approximately 11.8% for cagrilintide monotherapy and 16.1% for semaglutide monotherapy — illustrating the additive or complementary effect of combining amylin and GLP-1 receptor agonism. Cagrilintide is not available as an approved pharmaceutical. Any material circulating in research or grey markets is unregulated, unsupported by validated human dosing protocols outside of the trial context, and subject to the same product quality risks as other research peptides. This entry is for research reference only and does not constitute medical advice.