Peptide basics

Cerebrolysin vs semax: 39 registered trials against none, in the same category

This page reports what the trial registry, the FDA compounding record and PubMed contain for two compounds in the same category. It does not summarise what any trial or review concluded about effect, and no figure below should be read as support for using either compound.

What this comparison measures

These two compounds belong to the same category on this site, come out of overlapping research traditions, and are searched by overlapping audiences. That similarity is exactly why the difference in their records is worth setting out: it shows that a category label carries no information about how much evidence a compound has.¹²⁷⁸

Registered human trials

In the snapshot of 1 August 2026, a registry search for cerebrolysin returned 42 loose matches, of which 39 were verified as naming it an intervention. A search for semax returned nothing at all — no loose matches and therefore no verified studies.¹²

Cerebrolysin's 39 studies spread across the phase range: 2 early phase 1, 3 phase 1, 10 phase 2, 7 phase 3 and 13 phase 4, with 5 carrying no phase label. Recent registrations include add-on studies in acute ischaemic stroke alongside mechanical thrombectomy.¹⁵

• Cerebrolysin: 39 verified registered studies from 42 raw matches, furthest phase 4.
• Semax: 0 raw matches, 0 verified studies, no phase.
• The registry is the only count here that reaches this scale in the cognitive category.¹²

Phase 4 without a US approval

Cerebrolysin reaches phase 4 while holding no FDA-approved product, which looks contradictory and is not. Phase labels are assigned by the sponsor registering the study, and a post-marketing study can be run wherever the product is marketed.¹

The Cochrane review describes cerebrolysin as widely used in the treatment of acute ischaemic stroke in Russia, Eastern Europe, China and other Asian and post-Soviet countries, which is where those approvals sit. A 2026 analysis of nootropic regulation across the Commonwealth of Independent States covers the same regulatory territory.³¹⁰

Regulatory status

Neither compound has an approved US product in the snapshot. Semax appears on FDA's published page for bulk drug substances nominated for use in compounding, in the table of nominations withdrawn by their nominators, listed as semax (heptapeptide).⁶

FDA's entry states that the agency has no or limited safety-related information for the proposed routes and therefore lacks sufficient information to know whether harm would result. Cerebrolysin does not appear on that page, which means it was not nominated as a compounding bulk substance — not that it was assessed and cleared.⁶

Publication trend, 2017 to 2026

A PubMed title/abstract search across 2017 to 2026 returns 299 records for cerebrolysin and 53 for semax. Cerebrolysin runs between 21 and 47 records a year; semax between 3 and 9.⁷⁸

The composition differs as much as the size. Cerebrolysin's literature includes a multicentre randomised placebo-controlled trial in acute ischaemic stroke published in 2012 and a Cochrane review last updated in 2023. Semax's is dominated by laboratory and animal work, with one published placebo-controlled imaging study in 52 healthy participants from 2020.⁴³⁹

Cerebrolysin has the largest registered-trial record in the cognitive category on this site, and the only Cochrane review.

Semax has no registered trial in any of the registries searched, and roughly three and a half times cerebrolysin's readership.

Attention against evidence

Between February and July 2026, the semax Wikipedia article averaged 14,065 views a month with a peak of 16,303. The cerebrolysin article averaged 3,642 with a peak of 5,680.¹²¹¹

The compound with 39 registered studies is read roughly a third as often as the compound with none. Within a single category, on this site, the correlation between how much is known about a compound and how much it is read runs backwards.¹²

Common questions