Peptide basics
Why one unapproved compound has 39 trials
On this page
Cagrilintide has 39 verified registered trials enrolling 23,728 people, and no FDA-approved product.
Those 23,728 participants are more than most approved compounds tracked here have accumulated — tesamorelin, with an approved product, has 951.
The reason is that cagrilintide is studied both on its own and in combination with semaglutide, and combination programmes generate more registered studies.
So the count reflects development strategy as much as accumulated knowledge about the compound alone.
This page explains how combination development inflates trial counts, using cagrilintide as the example. It makes no claim about effectiveness and contains no dose, schedule or route.
How a combination trial is counted
A trial testing two compounds together names both as interventions. When we verify records, it counts toward each of them, because each was genuinely administered to the participants.12
That is the right way to count — the people really did receive it — and it means a compound developed as part of a pair accumulates registered studies faster than one developed alone.1
What that does to cagrilintide's number
Cagrilintide is an amylin analogue studied both alone and alongside semaglutide. Its 39 verified trials and 23,728 participants include studies where it was one component of a combination.1
So the figure does not mean 39 trials have characterised cagrilintide on its own. Some of them are answering a question about the pair, and a result from a combination cannot be attributed to one part of it.12
The older comparison
Pramlintide is the earlier amylin analogue tracked here. It has 54 verified trials and 4,401 participants, and an FDA-approved product recorded as discontinued.3
More trials, far fewer participants, an approval that came and went. Three compounds in one small family, three completely different shapes of record.13
Common questions
Should combination trials be excluded from the count?
No — the compound was administered, so the trial is real evidence involving it. What the count cannot do is separate the contribution of each component.
Can I see which of the 39 were combination studies?
Yes. The registry lists interventions for each trial, so filtering by the second compound shows the overlap directly.
Does this mean cagrilintide is less studied than it looks?
It means the number describes a development programme rather than a single compound's characterisation. 23,728 participants is still a substantial record.
Sources
- RegulatoryClinicalTrials.gov search — intervention: cagrilintideU.S. National Library of Medicine, 2026clinicaltrials.gov/search?intr=cagrilintide ↗↩ Back to text
- RegulatoryClinicalTrials.gov search — intervention: semaglutideU.S. National Library of Medicine, 2026clinicaltrials.gov/search?intr=semaglutide ↗↩ Back to text
- RegulatoryClinicalTrials.gov search — intervention: pramlintideU.S. National Library of Medicine, 2026clinicaltrials.gov/search?intr=pramlintide ↗↩ Back to text