Cagrilintide guide: how it works, the trial doses, CagriSema, and the diabetes medicines around it

How cagrilintide works and the amylin drug class

How cagrilintide works · Cagrilintide is Novo Nordisk's once-weekly amylin analogue. It reduced body weight by up to 10.8% over 26 weeks on its own in phase 2 ^[2], works through amylin and calcitonin receptors in the brainstem rather than the GLP-1 pathway, and is not approved anywhere.

• Cagrilintide side effects: how often each one happened in the trials
  The main cagrilintide side effects in trials were nausea, constipation and other stomach effects, in 41% to 63% of people on cagrilintide alone against 32% on placebo , plus injection-site reactions. Here is each rate, trial by trial.
• Amylin analogs: pramlintide, cagrilintide and the amylin drugs in development
  Pramlintide is the only approved amylin analog. Cagrilintide, eloralintide, petrelintide and amycretin are the long-acting amylin drugs now in trials, with weight loss of up to about 24% in trials so far .
• Eloralintide: Eli Lilly's amylin drug, and how it compares with cagrilintide
  Eloralintide is Eli Lilly's once-weekly, selective amylin receptor agonist. It reduced body weight by up to 20% over 48 weeks in phase 2 and is in phase 3 for obesity, not approved.

Cagrilintide doses and injection

Cagrilintide dosage · No cagrilintide dosage is established for anyone outside a clinical trial. Trials gave 0.16 to 4.5 mg once a week under the skin, and the phase 3 programme settled on 2.4 mg, alone or with semaglutide, reached by gradual escalation ^[2][3].

• Cagrilintide dosage with tirzepatide: what has and has not been tested
  No human trial has given cagrilintide with tirzepatide, so no combined dose exists. Tirzepatide has only been CagriSema's comparator, and the only shared study was in rats .
• Cagrilintide with retatrutide: what the evidence covers
  No human trial has tested cagrilintide and retatrutide together; the only study of the pair is in obese male rats . Here is what each drug's own trials used, and where retatrutide stands.
• Subcutaneous injection sites: where weekly injections go, and what the trials specified
  A subcutaneous injection goes into the fat under the skin, usually in the abdomen, thigh or upper arm, the three sites on the labels of weekly GLP-1 pens . What the instructions and the cagrilintide trials specify.

CagriSema

Cagrilintide + semaglutide (CagriSema) · The combination of cagrilintide and semaglutide: every trial, the arms against each component, doses, side effects and status.

• CagriSema dosage and dosing schedule: the trial titration step by step
  In the phase 2 trial, CagriSema doses rose every 4 weeks from 0.25 mg of each drug to 2.4 mg of each by week 17 , and the phase 3 trials also stepped both drugs up to 2.4 mg . Here is that schedule, how many people reached the top dose, and why no dose is approved.
• CagriSema news: Novo Nordisk's trials, filing and approval timeline
  Novo Nordisk filed CagriSema with the FDA in December 2025 and expects a decision in the fourth quarter of 2026. Every trial result to date, dated and sourced, and why no price exists yet.

New weight-loss drugs

New weight-loss drugs · Three new weight-loss medicines reached US approval between December 2025 and October 2026: the Wegovy pill, Foundayo (orforglipron) and Wegovy HD. Here is each announcement, dated and sourced, with the late-stage pipeline and where cagrilintide fits.

Type 2 diabetes medicines

Diabetes medications · A complete list of type 2 diabetes medications in one table: how each class lowers blood sugar, its A1C and weight effect, whether it causes hypoglycemia, pill or injection, and example names, with how the 2026 ADA Standards choose between them.

• Type 2 diabetes treatments: how treatment is chosen, step by step, in current guidelines
  Type 2 diabetes treatment starts with nutrition, activity and education, adds medicines chosen by heart, kidney and weight goals, and moves to injections such as GLP-1 drugs and insulin when needed. This is the sequence the 2026 ADA Standards describe.
• Prediabetes medication: what the prevention trials showed
  No medicine is approved in the US specifically for prediabetes. Metformin has the longest record, cutting diabetes onset by 31% in the Diabetes Prevention Program, less than lifestyle change did; semaglutide and tirzepatide showed larger effects in people with obesity.
• Metformin vs insulin: how much each lowers A1C, and how they differ
  Metformin lowers A1C by about 1.1 percentage points on its own; insulin can lower it as far as needed but brings low blood sugar and weight gain. Here is what the trials measured for each, and when the 2026 ADA Standards use one, the other, or both.
• Hypoglycemic drugs: the glucose-lowering classes, and the medicines that raise blood sugar
  Hypoglycemic drugs, also called antihyperglycemic or antidiabetic agents, are the medicines that lower blood sugar. Here they are classified in one table with the classes that can cause hypoglycemia, and a second table lists common drugs that increase blood sugar.
• Jardiance for type 2 diabetes: how empagliflozin works and what its trials found
  Jardiance is empagliflozin, a once-daily SGLT2 inhibitor tablet, not insulin. It lowers A1C by roughly 0.7 to 0.9 points against placebo, and its heart and kidney trials earned it approvals for heart failure and chronic kidney disease as well as diabetes.
• New diabetes medications: what has been approved recently, and what is coming
  The new type 2 diabetes medications approved in 2026, from the Ozempic pill to two once-weekly insulins, the late-stage drugs behind them, and a plain answer to what is replacing metformin.
• Glucose pills: glucose tablets for lows versus pills that lower blood sugar
  Glucose tablets raise blood sugar to treat a low; diabetes pills lower it. The two meanings, the ADA's 15-15 rule, grams per tablet, and which diabetes pills make lows more likely.
• Can type 2 diabetes be cured? What remission trials show
  There is no cure for type 2 diabetes, but trials show remission: normal HbA1c off all glucose-lowering drugs. What diet, surgery and GLP-1 studies achieved, and how long it lasted.