Cagrilintide Peptide: The Amylin Analogue Inside CagriSema, and Where to Buy It (2026)

Cagrilintide supplies the amylin pathway

CagriSema is a two-part receptor pairing. Semaglutide carries the GLP-1 receptor half. Cagrilintide carries the amylin and calcitonin half. The combination is not a second incretin stacked on the first; it puts two different signalling systems into one program, and cagrilintide is the part that makes it different from everything else in the class.

That split is also why the numbers need labels. A monotherapy arm shows what cagrilintide did on its own. A CagriSema arm measures the pair, and none of that result can be assigned to either half. Both figures are useful. They belong to different interventions, durations, comparators, and populations.

Some of the mechanism has been picked apart in animals. In rats, CagriSema produced 12 percent weight loss and a 39 percent reduction in food intake, and the authors attributed roughly a third of the weight-loss effect to preserved energy expenditure relative to pair-fed controls rather than to reduced intake alone. That is a rodent finding about the combination, not about either component by itself.

The long-acting label has human PK behind it

Long-acting is a measurement here, not a marketing word. The randomized phase 1b combination study put cagrilintide's half-life at 159 to 195 hours, with a median tmax of 24 to 72 hours and dose-proportional exposure across the 0.16 to 4.5 mg range administered. A half-life near a week is what makes once-weekly administration the design everywhere else in the program.

The same study reported that cagrilintide did not alter semaglutide exposure or elimination, which matters for a fixed combination. That finding is specific to semaglutide under those conditions, and the wider interaction picture is still thin. Gastrointestinal disorders accounted for 207 of the 566 adverse events recorded, most of them mild to moderate.

Monotherapy established the standalone range

Before the combination reports, cagrilintide had its own dose-finding trial. The randomized phase 2 study enrolled 706 participants and administered once-weekly cagrilintide at 0.3, 0.6, 1.2, 2.4 or 4.5 mg for 26 weeks. Mean body-weight reductions ran from 6.0 to 10.8 percent across those groups against 3.0 percent with placebo. The 4.5 mg group reached 10.8 percent, against 9.0 percent for liraglutide 3.0 mg in an active comparator arm. Those amounts describe the study design and nothing else.

The tolerability figures sit right beside them. Gastrointestinal adverse events occurred in 41 to 63 percent of the cagrilintide groups against 32 percent on placebo, and nausea in 20 to 47 percent against 18 percent. Nausea, constipation, diarrhoea and administration-site reactions were the most frequent events reported.

This remains the cleanest standalone picture in the published record: 26 weeks, five dose groups, a placebo control and an active comparator.

REDEFINE measured the two-part combination

REDEFINE 1 studied CagriSema in adults with overweight or obesity and without diabetes. It randomized 3,417 participants and reported an estimated mean body-weight change at week 68 of -20.4 percent on cagrilintide 2.4 mg plus semaglutide 2.4 mg, against -3.0 percent with placebo. Gastrointestinal adverse events occurred in 79.6 percent of the combination group and 39.9 percent of the placebo group, described as mainly transient and mild to moderate. The trial carried a cagrilintide 2.4 mg monotherapy arm alongside a semaglutide 2.4 mg arm, which is unusual and useful: it separates the components inside one protocol.

REDEFINE 2 ran the same 2.4 mg/2.4 mg combination in adults with overweight or obesity and type 2 diabetes. It randomized 1,206 participants and reported -13.7 percent at week 68 against -3.4 percent with placebo, with gastrointestinal adverse events in 72.5 percent and 34.4 percent respectively, most of them transient and mild or moderate.

The two trials share an intervention and a 68-week endpoint and differ in population, which is most of the gap between 20.4 and 13.7 percent. Neither figure is a cagrilintide result. Both are combination results, and so are the gastrointestinal rates that come with them.

REDEFINE 4 is the head-to-head against tirzepatide 15 mg in 809 adults with obesity, with non-inferiority in relative body-weight change at week 84 as its primary endpoint. The registry records it as completed on January 9, 2026, and no results were posted to the registry as of August 2026.

REIMAGINE extended the program into type 2 diabetes

The REIMAGINE phase 3 program tested CagriSema in adults with type 2 diabetes at several stages of disease. Novo Nordisk announced headline results from REIMAGINE 2 on February 2, 2026: 2,728 participants inadequately controlled on metformin with or without an SGLT2 inhibitor, with CagriSema 2.4 mg/2.4 mg reporting an HbA1c reduction of 1.91 percentage points and weight loss of 14.2 percent at week 68, against 1.76 percentage points and 10.2 percent for semaglutide 2.4 mg. That trial also carried a cagrilintide 2.4 mg monotherapy arm and a placebo arm, and Novo Nordisk reported superiority against the individual components on both endpoints.

REIMAGINE 1, 2 and 3 were presented at the American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions on June 7, 2026, with REIMAGINE 1 and 2 published simultaneously in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology and REIMAGINE 3 in The Lancet. Each of the three met its primary HbA1c endpoint and its confirmatory secondary body-weight endpoint. REIMAGINE 5, a 1,023-participant comparison of CagriSema 1.0 mg/1.0 mg against tirzepatide 5 mg, is recorded as completed on July 9, 2026 with no posted results as of August 2026.

A broad program, with an application still pending

The registered program extends well beyond the headline trials. Across ClinicalTrials.gov searches for NNC0174-0833, cagrilintide, and CagriSema, the combined set contained 53 studies on August 25, 2026. Most completed records had no posted results. Registration shows the scale and subjects of the program, while published outcomes remain concentrated in a smaller group of studies. A completed status alone supplies no body-weight estimate, adverse-event rate, or full account of the findings.

The regulatory position is precise. Novo Nordisk announced on December 18, 2025 that it had submitted a US new drug application for CagriSema 2.4 mg/2.4 mg, and said in the same announcement that CagriSema was not approved. No approval decision is on the record as of August 2026, and Novo Nordisk has not published a PDUFA target date. In Europe, cagrilintide and semaglutide appear as active substances in paediatric investigation plan EMEA-003059-PIP02-23, decision P/0307/2023 of 4 August 2023, which granted a product-specific waiver. A PIP decision is a paediatric-development matter, not a marketing authorisation.

Two adjacent FDA records get attached to cagrilintide by association, and neither one names it. The Federal Register notice for the July 2026 Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee meeting lists BPC-157, KPV, TB-500, MOTS-c, emideltide, Semax and Epitalon. The May 2026 notice on the section 503B bulk substances list addresses semaglutide, tirzepatide and liraglutide. Cagrilintide is in neither document.

Is cagrilintide legal to buy?

In the United States, cagrilintide is legal to purchase as a research chemical for laboratory use. It is not a controlled substance and does not appear on any DEA schedule as of August 2026. What it also is not: an approved drug, a dietary supplement ingredient, or a compound cleared for human or veterinary use in any form.

Three boundaries define the current legal picture:

1. Research sale is lawful; human-use marketing is not. The FDA has repeatedly cited peptide sellers whose sites promote human use, and courts have treated that line seriously. The owner of one vendor, Paradigm Peptides, was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison in July 2026 for selling unapproved and adulterated drugs. The offense was not stocking peptides. It was selling them for human consumption while faking the paperwork.
2. A pending NDA is not an approval. Cagrilintide is under active FDA review as one half of CagriSema. Until a decision issues, no approved or lawfully compounded form exists in the US, and any site offering "CagriSema" as a finished medicine is selling something other than the trial drug.
3. Cagrilintide is absent from the compounding lists. It appears on neither the 503A nominated-substance agenda reviewed in July 2026 nor the May 2026 section 503B bulk substances notice, so the compounding route that surrounds semaglutide does not extend to it.

None of this changes how a supplier like Curo operates: cagrilintide is sold strictly for laboratory research, not for human or animal use. Curo's research use only policy covers what that means in practice.

Where to buy cagrilintide for laboratory research

Researchers looking for where to buy cagrilintide face a supplier market that changed sharply in 2025 and 2026. Peptide Sciences closed in March 2026, Amino Asylum went offline after a reported federal raid in June 2025, and Paradigm Peptides ended in a criminal sentencing. Several sites now trade on those dead brand names, so the first check is not price. It is whether the company behind the storefront actually exists. Our guide to the best peptide companies in 2026 covers the current field vendor by vendor.

Cagrilintide raises the documentation bar higher than a short peptide does. At 37 residues with a disulfide bridge and a lipid side chain, it is a harder synthesis, and identity confirmation matters more because a truncated or mis-folded product can still pass a loose purity check.

Five checks separate a documented cagrilintide source from an anonymous one:

1. A lot-specific COA, published before purchase. The certificate should match the exact lot on the vial, not a generic product-page badge. The help center shows how to verify a certificate against your lot.
2. A named, independent laboratory. A COA is only as good as the lab that issued it. Court records in the Paradigm case showed the defendants admitted faking certificates outright, which is the failure mode this check exists to catch.
3. Identity and purity by more than one method. HPLC purity alone leaves an identity gap on a peptide this size. Look for mass-spectrometry identity confirmation against the expected mass and endotoxin results alongside it.
4. An identifiable company. A legal entity, a real contact route, and consistent policies. A brand name alone is not an identity, and the clone sites trading on dead vendors prove it.
5. Payment with recourse. Card payment carries buyer protection. Venmo, Zelle, and crypto-only checkouts remove it.

Curo stocks Cagrilintide 10mg in the research catalog. Every lot is tested by an independent laboratory for identity (LC-MS), purity (HPLC), and endotoxin, the full testing standard is documented, and every certificate is publicly readable without an account. Orders are fulfilled from the United States, and payment options include card, crypto, Zelle, and Cash App.

How much does cagrilintide cost?

As of August 2026, research-grade cagrilintide in the 10mg vial size typically runs $99 to $175 from US suppliers that publish lot-matched, independently issued COAs. Cheaper vials exist, some near $50, but they cluster among suppliers with no published lot documentation, and an unverified lot is unusable as research material at any price. Curo's Cagrilintide 10mg is $124, inside the documented tier and below its upper half. Compare the documentation attached to the current batch first, then the price. The pre-purchase checklist walks the full sequence.

What a cagrilintide certificate of analysis should show

Cagrilintide is synthesized by many suppliers, so material quality is something a lab confirms rather than assumes. Identity, purity, endotoxin load, and fill accuracy all vary by manufacturer and by lot. A certificate worth relying on shows:

• The exact lot number that appears on the vial.
• The issuing laboratory's name and report identifier.
• HPLC purity with the chromatogram, not a bare percentage.
• Mass-spectrometry identity confirmation against the expected mass near 4,409 Da.
• An endotoxin result, since a pure peptide can still carry bacterial contamination from synthesis.
• A way to verify the document independently, through a public lookup or the lab itself. Curo's COA database is open for exactly this reason.

A well-tested lyophilized peptide can still be degraded by poor handling after receipt. See storing research peptides and bacteriostatic water for the storage side.

For a broader framework on separating documentation from marketing when comparing suppliers, see how to evaluate research peptide companies and the companion piece on purity claims and COA batch documentation.

Further reading

For readers tracking how another large program in the same therapeutic area is progressing on a different timetable, the 2026 retatrutide phase 3 program update provides a useful parallel at a different stage.

Cagrilintide is routinely filed alongside the incretin agonists even though it targets a separate receptor system. How those incretin targets differ from one another is set out in the semaglutide, tirzepatide and retatrutide class comparison.

Frequently asked questions

Is cagrilintide a GLP-1 drug?

No. It activates the amylin receptor AMY1R and the calcitonin receptor CTR, which is a separate system from the incretin receptors. It appears in CagriSema beside semaglutide, which supplies the GLP-1 receptor activity.

Is cagrilintide legal to buy in the US?

Yes, as a research chemical for laboratory use. It is not a controlled substance as of August 2026. It is not approved for human use, it appears on no FDA compounding list, and the CagriSema application that contains it is still under review.

Where can a researcher buy cagrilintide?

From suppliers that publish lot-specific, independently issued COAs and operate as identifiable companies. Several well-known vendors closed or faced federal action in 2025 and 2026, and clone sites now trade on their names, so verify the company before the price. Curo lists cagrilintide for laboratory research with every lot's certificate published openly.

How much does cagrilintide cost?

Suppliers that publish lot-matched third-party COAs typically charge $99 to $175 for a 10mg research vial as of August 2026. Curo's 10mg vial is $124 with the lot's certificate published before purchase. Vials near $50 usually come without verifiable lot documentation.

Is CagriSema FDA approved?

No approval decision is on the record as of August 2026. The December 2025 announcement records an NDA submission and explicitly says CagriSema was not approved. No PDUFA target date has been published.

Can monotherapy and CagriSema percentages be compared as one result?

No. First identify whether the intervention was cagrilintide alone or the cagrilintide-semaglutide combination. Then compare study duration, population, comparator, and adverse-event rates before placing the percentages side by side.

What should a certificate of analysis for cagrilintide show?

Lot-specific identity and purity data from chromatographic and mass-spectrometry methods, plus endotoxin results, tied to the exact lot number on the vial and verifiable through a public lookup.

Where does Curo explain handling and stability for research materials?

The storage and stability guide covers handling for research materials, and the guide to verifying a certificate against its lot covers the documentation check.