Cagrilintide: What REDEFINE Showed

Cagrilintide: The Amylin Half of CagriSema, and What the Trials Showed

Cagrilintide is a long-acting amylin analogue tested with semaglutide as CagriSema. What the REDEFINE phase 3 trials reported, and what it is not approved for on its own.

Not approved aloneIn late-stage trials

Caroline S · Published 2026-09-07

Length

Amylin analogue

Sequence

Long-acting amylin receptor agonist

Origin

Analogue of human amylin, a pancreatic hormone

Last reviewed

2026-09-07

What is it good for?

Weight loss, and almost always in combination rather than alone. Its results come from trials in which it was given together with semaglutide, under the name CagriSema — so a claim about cagrilintide by itself is usually a claim about a two-drug combination.

Illustration

What it is

Cagrilintide is a long-acting analogue of amylin, a hormone the pancreas releases at the same time as insulin. Amylin's job is to signal fullness and to slow how quickly the stomach empties.

The natural hormone is short-lived and awkward to work with. Cagrilintide is engineered to survive long enough for a once-weekly injection.

Why it is nearly always discussed alongside semaglutide

Because that is how it has been tested.

The compound most of the attention is really about is CagriSema — cagrilintide and semaglutide combined in one weekly injection. The two work on different systems: semaglutide on the GLP-1 pathway, cagrilintide on the amylin pathway. The reasoning for combining them is that two separate signals of fullness might do more than one.

This matters for reading anything written about cagrilintide. The striking numbers people quote come from trials of the combination. They describe what two drugs did together.

What the trials showed

This is one of the better-evidenced entries in this library, and worth stating precisely.

REDEFINE 1, in adults with overweight or obesity: an estimated 20.4% reduction in body weight at 68 weeks on cagrilintide-semaglutide, against 3.0% on placebo — a difference of 17.3 percentage points.

REDEFINE 2, in adults with obesity and type 2 diabetes: 13.7% against 3.4% on placebo. Among the treated group, 73.5% reached a glycated haemoglobin of 6.5% or less, against 15.9% on placebo.

These are large randomised phase 3 trials in people. Nothing in this library that is sold as a research chemical has evidence of this kind behind it.

The cost, in the same trials

Gastrointestinal side effects were reported by 72.5% of the treated group in REDEFINE 1, against 34.4% on placebo. The trials describe most as transient and mild or moderate.

Roughly three in four people getting nausea, vomiting or diarrhoea is not a footnote. It is the single most common reason people stop taking drugs in this class, and it belongs in the same paragraph as the weight-loss figure rather than several paragraphs below it.

Where it stands

Approved as a medicine: no. Completing large trials and being approved are different things, and a compound can finish phase 3 without ever being approved.

Sold as: a research chemical, by vendors who are not the trial sponsor. What is in those vials has not been through any of the manufacturing controls the trial product went through.

For the neighbouring approach — adding a second receptor to one molecule rather than pairing two drugs — see survodutide and the GLP-1/glucagon dual agonist mazdutide.

Last checked

2026-09-07.

What the research shows

Weight loss with semaglutide (CagriSema)

Phase 3 human trials: −20.4% vs −3.0% placebo at 68 weeks

Weight loss and glucose control in type 2 diabetes

Phase 3: −13.7% vs −3.4% placebo at 68 weeks

Effects of cagrilintide on its own

Far less studied than the combination it is sold on

Bars show how much of the evidence is in humans, not how well anything works.

Where it stands

Approved as a medicine

Not approved. It has been studied in large phase 3 trials, which is a different thing from being approved.

Studied as

CagriSema — cagrilintide plus semaglutide, once weekly.

Reported side effects

Gastrointestinal events in 72.5% of the treated group versus 34.4% on placebo, mostly transient and mild to moderate.

Sold as

A research chemical by vendors who are not the trial sponsor.

Frequently asked questions

What is cagrilintide?

A long-acting analogue of amylin — a hormone the pancreas releases alongside insulin, which signals fullness and slows how quickly the stomach empties. Cagrilintide is engineered to last long enough for once-weekly dosing. It works on a different system from the GLP-1 drugs, which is the reason for pairing the two.

Is cagrilintide the same as CagriSema?

No, and the distinction matters when reading results. CagriSema is cagrilintide combined with semaglutide in one weekly injection. Nearly every headline figure quoted for cagrilintide comes from a trial of the combination, so it describes what two drugs did together, not what cagrilintide does alone.

How much weight did people lose in the trials?

In REDEFINE 1, adults with overweight or obesity lost an estimated 20.4% of body weight at 68 weeks on cagrilintide-semaglutide, compared with 3.0% on placebo. In REDEFINE 2, in people who also had type 2 diabetes, it was 13.7% against 3.4%. These are large, well-conducted human trials — a level of evidence most compounds in this library do not have.

Is cagrilintide approved?

No. It has been through large phase 3 trials, which means the evidence is being collected and reviewed. That is not the same as approval, and a compound can complete phase 3 and still not be approved. Anything sold as cagrilintide today is not the trial product.

What are the side effects?

In REDEFINE 1, gastrointestinal adverse events — nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and similar — were reported by 72.5% of the treated group against 34.4% on placebo. The trials describe most of these as transient and mild or moderate. That is a high rate, and it is the main reason people stop taking drugs in this class.