What is Cagrilintide?

A long-acting amylin analog built for once-weekly dosing and GLP-1 pairing. Structurally it is Long-acting amylin analog (acylated peptide).

How strong is the evidence for Cagrilintide?

PeptideHormone grades Cagrilintide at the "Investigational" evidence tier — it is under active human investigation — promising, but not yet settled. It is catalogued as an engineered analog built on an endogenous hormone, and the tier is an editorial judgment about the public literature that can change as the science does.

What is the half-life of Cagrilintide?

The reported circulating half-life of Cagrilintide is ~7 days (159-195 h).

Cagrilintide

A long-acting amylin analog built for once-weekly dosing and GLP-1 pairing.

AnalogInvestigationalBased on AmylinCompare with IAPP Compare lineage

The amylin axis rebuilt on a weekly clock, on the wager that the incretins were never the only lever worth pulling.

Identity

Class: Long-acting amylin analog (acylated peptide)
Source: Synthetic; engineered long-acting amylin analog
Receptor: Amylin receptors (calcitonin receptor + RAMP)

Key properties

Evidence floorClinicalREF1CLIN1

Molecular weight

~4,408.9 Da

REF

Half-life (native)

~7 days (159-195 h)

CLIN

Model dosing

Approximate values for the native hormone; engineered analogs are often deliberately larger and far longer-acting. Each figure carries its own provenance tier, and the floor is the weakest of them - the Standard.

Mechanism

Cagrilintide is an acylated amylin analog engineered for once-weekly dosing. It agonizes amylin receptors to drive satiety and slow gastric emptying, and is studied both on its own and — as the combination known as CagriSema — alongside semaglutide, stacking an amylin axis onto a GLP-1 axis for additive appetite suppression. It is investigational.

Two molecules, two receptors, one regimen. Cagrilintide holds the amylin note; semaglutide holds the GLP-1 note. CagriSema is the bet that the two satiety signals stack — the combination amycretin later tries to write as a single peptide.

In depth

Every incretin story on this page starts from a gut hormone; cagrilintide starts from the pancreas's quieter second secretion. Amylin is co-released with insulin after every meal and does the jobs insulin cannot — slowing gastric emptying, suppressing post-meal glucagon, telling the brain the meal is enough. Native human amylin is a terrible drug: it clumps into fibrils in the vial. Cagrilintide is that same hormone rebuilt as a week-long molecule, its aggregation engineered out and a fatty-acid chain added for albumin binding, so a single injection can hold the amylin note for days rather than minutes.

The clinical logic is stacking, not replacing. Semaglutide plays the GLP-1 axis; cagrilintide plays the amylin axis. On their own each suppresses appetite and slows the gut. Together, as the combination known as CagriSema, they are meant to add up to more than either alone — two distinct satiety signals run in parallel, in two separate pens. The phase 3 REDEFINE trials are where that arithmetic is being tested at scale.

That design — two molecules, two receptors, one regimen — is also its limitation. It is a combination, not a single agent, which is why the next molecule on the shelf tries to collapse the same two signals into one peptide: amycretin keeps the GLP-1-plus-amylin bet but writes it unimolecular. Cagrilintide is the proof the axis works; amycretin is the attempt to make it elegant.

Reference notes

Designed for once-weekly dosing, unlike the mealtime-injected first-generation amylin analog pramlintide.
Studied in combination with semaglutide (CagriSema), pairing amylin and GLP-1 pathways in one regimen.
Investigational — under clinical study, not approved.

Common questions

What is Cagrilintide?: A long-acting amylin analog built for once-weekly dosing and GLP-1 pairing. Structurally it is Long-acting amylin analog (acylated peptide).
How does Cagrilintide work?: Cagrilintide is an acylated amylin analog engineered for once-weekly dosing. It agonizes amylin receptors to drive satiety and slow gastric emptying, and is studied both on its own and — as the combination known as CagriSema — alongside semaglutide, stacking an amylin axis onto a GLP-1 axis for additive appetite suppression. It is investigational.
How strong is the evidence for Cagrilintide?: PeptideHormone grades Cagrilintide at the "Investigational" evidence tier — it is under active human investigation — promising, but not yet settled. It is catalogued as an engineered analog built on an endogenous hormone, and the tier is an editorial judgment about the public literature that can change as the science does.
What is the half-life of Cagrilintide?: The reported circulating half-life of Cagrilintide is ~7 days (159-195 h).

Selected literature

Curated peer-reviewed reviews, sourced from PubMed. Selected for relevance, not exhaustive — open any entry on PubMed for the full record and its primary citations.

1.Once-weekly cagrilintide for weight management in people with overweight and obesity: a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled and active-controlled, dose-finding phase 2 trial · Lancet (London, England), 2021 · PMID 34798060
2.Coadministered Cagrilintide and Semaglutide in Adults with Overweight or Obesity · The New England journal of medicine, 2025 · PMID 40544433

External references

Cagrilintide in the public knowledge graph — the same entity resolved across the authoritative chemistry and protein databases.