GLP-1s & incretins
Cagrilintide
A long-acting amylin analogue, mostly studied in combination with a GLP-1 agonist.
Also known as: amylin analogue, component of combination therapy
Evidence passport
Last reviewed 2026-08-23
- Evidence level
- L4Strong human
- Confidence
- Moderate confidence
- Human efficacy
- 65/100
- Human safety
- 45/100
- Regulatory status
- Investigational
- Development
- In clinical development
- Routes
- SC injection
- Evidence base
- Includes human data
- Furthest stage
- Not established
- Source curation
- Source curation pending
- Clinical maturity
- Late-stage investigational, largely as combination therapy
Overview
Clinical maturity: Late-stage investigational, largely as combination therapy
Routes & formulations
Studied / approved routes
Clinical trials use subcutaneous injection; there is no approved formulation of any kind.
Route availability is not evidence of efficacy, and evidence from one route does not transfer to another. The Registry never provides dosing or sourcing information.
Peptide lifecycle
Discovery
Preclinical
Phase I
Phase II
Phase III
Approved
Late-stage investigational programme, largely in combination with semaglutide; the precise current stage is not established in our curated record.
What it is
A synthetic long-acting version of amylin, a hormone co-secreted with insulin that promotes satiety and slows gastric emptying through a different route from GLP-1.
What people claim
- Adds weight loss on top of GLP-1 therapy
- Different satiety pathway, additive effect
What the evidence actually says
Human trials support additional weight reduction when combined with a GLP-1 agonist, which is mechanistically plausible. Standalone long-term data are thinner, and the regulatory story is still being written.
Human evidence
- Randomised trials of the combination showing additive weight reduction versus GLP-1 alone.
- Dose-ranging monotherapy studies.
Preclinical evidence
- Amylin receptor pharmacology and rodent satiety models.
Animal and cell findings are Level 1–2 evidence.
Mechanism and pathways
- Amylin/calcitonin receptor signalling in the area postrema reduces meal size.
- Complementary rather than duplicative to GLP-1 signalling.
Safety and unknowns
- Gastrointestinal effects, injection-site reactions.
- Long-term safety of chronic amylin agonism remains under study.
Cancer relevance
No established human signal
Regulatory status
Investigational. Studied alone and as part of a fixed-dose combination with semaglutide (CagriSema, in Phase 3); not a generally approved standalone medicine.
Evidence grade
Solid controlled human trials, though not yet definitive or fully replicated.
What would change our rating?
- Phase 3 readouts and a regulatory decision on the combination.
References and sources
- To be curatedSources to be curated
Source hierarchy: regulatory documents and trial registries first, peer-reviewed work next, sponsor material flagged as non-independent. We never use supplier or clinic marketing as evidence, and where a verified source has not yet been curated we say so rather than inventing one.
Evidence change history
2026-06-18
Baseline entry: added as combination-therapy candidate with moderate confidence.
L4Strong humanBaseline entryAdditive weight reduction in combination trials is supported. Standalone long-term evidence remains limited.