Peptide basics

Semaglutide vs liraglutide: a growing record next to a finished one

By Emma Johari, Editor

7 min

Articles are summaries, researched and drafted from the sources listed on each page. How this site is written.

Secondary sources · 14 sources

On this page
  1. What this comparison measures
  2. Registered human trials
  3. Furthest phase reached
  4. Regulatory status, including generics
  5. Publication trend, 2017 to 2026
  6. The direct comparison that exists
  7. Attention against evidence
  8. Common questions

Semaglutide has 589 registered studies in PepRack's snapshot; liraglutide has 442. Both reach phase 4 and both hold approved US products.

Their indexed literatures are also close: 5,153 records against 4,155 across 2017–2026. Semaglutide's series is climbing steeply, liraglutide's has been broadly flat for a decade.

Liraglutide now has multiple approved generic applications in Drugs@FDA. Semaglutide, at the time of this snapshot, has one generic application listed as tentatively approved.

Readership diverges far more than evidence does: 54,466 monthly views for semaglutide against 4,759 for liraglutide. That is a fact about attention, not about either compound.

This page compares two public records — registrations, phases, approvals, publications, readership. It does not compare what the compounds do, does not rank them, and cannot be used to choose between them.

What this comparison measures

Everything below is a property of the record: registered studies, phases, approved applications, indexed publications, readership. None of it is a property of the molecules.1234

Registered human trials

In the snapshot of 1 August 2026, semaglutide returned 730 loose registry matches of which 589 were verified as naming it an intervention. Liraglutide returned 513 loose matches of which 442 were verified.12

These are the two largest registered records among the metabolic compounds tracked here, and they are closer to each other than to anything else in the category. The ratio between them is roughly four to three.12

Furthest phase reached

Both compounds reach phase 4. Liraglutide records 117 phase-4 registrations against semaglutide's 93, and 110 phase-3 against semaglutide's 155.12

The direction of that difference is worth noticing. Liraglutide has proportionally more of its registered activity after approval, semaglutide proportionally more before it — the profile of a longer-marketed compound against a more recently registered one. Neither pattern is a quality signal.12

Regulatory status, including generics

Both compounds hold approved US applications. Liraglutide's originator records include VICTOZA under NDA 022341 and SAXENDA under NDA 206321. Semaglutide's include WEGOVY under NDA 215256, OZEMPIC under NDA 209637 and RYBELSUS under NDA 213182.5678910

The clearer difference is downstream of approval. The openFDA index returns numerous approved abbreviated applications for liraglutide from separate manufacturers. For semaglutide it returns one abbreviated application, recorded at tentative approval rather than approval.910

PepRack's snapshot happens to record liraglutide's FDA entry as a generic application rather than an originator one, because the index returns whichever record matches first. The complete application lists are in the linked openFDA queries, and they are the authority rather than the single record the snapshot stores.9

Publication trend, 2017 to 2026

Across 2017 to 2026, a PubMed title/abstract search returns 5,153 records for semaglutide and 4,155 for liraglutide. The totals are within about a quarter of each other; the shapes are not.34

Semaglutide climbs from 76 records in 2017 to 1,677 in 2025. Liraglutide sits between roughly 400 and 450 records a year from 2017 through 2023, then rises to 691 in 2025. One series is accelerating; the other has been close to flat for most of the decade.34

  • Semaglutide 2017: 76 records. Semaglutide 2025: 1,677.
  • Liraglutide 2017: 395 records. Liraglutide 2025: 691.
  • The 2026 counts in both series are partial and should not be read as annual totals.34

The direct comparison that exists

STEP 8 randomly assigned adults with overweight or obesity and without diabetes to semaglutide or to liraglutide within a single protocol, which makes it a direct comparison rather than an inference across trials.11

Its existence matters because the registration trials for each compound — SCALE for liraglutide in weight management, STEP 1 for semaglutide — were run years apart in different populations under different protocols. Differences between two such trials cannot be attributed to the compounds.121311

Semaglutide holds the largest registered-trial record on this site and the steepest publication curve among the metabolic compounds.

Liraglutide's record is the more mature of the two: more phase-4 registrations, a flatter literature, and approved generic applications from multiple manufacturers.

Attention against evidence

Between February and June 2026, the semaglutide Wikipedia article averaged 54,466 views a month and peaked at 65,268. The liraglutide article averaged 4,759 between February and July 2026, peaking at 5,303.1214

The evidence records differ by roughly a third. The readership differs by more than a factor of eleven. Whatever is driving public attention here, it is not the size of the trial record.12

Common questions

Is semaglutide better studied than liraglutide?

It has more registered studies — 589 against 442 — and more indexed publications, 5,153 against 4,155. Liraglutide has more phase-4 registrations. 'Better studied' is not a single quantity, and none of these figures indicates which compound performs better in anyone.

Why is liraglutide's publication count flat?

The data cannot say why. A flat series is consistent with a mature research question, with funding moving to newer compounds, or with both at once. The count records volume, not the reason for it.

Does the availability of liraglutide generics mean anything about the evidence?

No. Generic approval follows patent expiry and a demonstration of equivalence to an approved product. It is a fact about the market and the manufacturing record, not about how much clinical evidence exists.

Has anyone compared the two directly?

Yes. STEP 8 randomly assigned participants to one compound or the other within one protocol. That is a stronger construction than reading each compound's separate registration trial side by side, because those trials differ in population, duration and endpoints.

Sources

  1. Secondary source
    ClinicalTrials.gov registry search: studies with an intervention matching “Semaglutide”U.S. National Library of Medicine, ClinicalTrials.gov, 2026clinicaltrials.gov/search?intr=Semaglutide ↗↩ Back to text
  2. Secondary source
    ClinicalTrials.gov registry search: studies with an intervention matching “Liraglutide”U.S. National Library of Medicine, ClinicalTrials.gov, 2026clinicaltrials.gov/search?intr=Liraglutide ↗↩ Back to text
  3. Secondary source
    PubMed title/abstract search: “Semaglutide”, publication years 2017–2026National Library of Medicine, PubMed, 2026pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=%22Semaglutide%22%5Btiab%5D%20AND% ↗↩ Back to text
  4. Secondary source
    PubMed title/abstract search: “Liraglutide”, publication years 2017–2026National Library of Medicine, PubMed, 2026pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=%22Liraglutide%22%5Btiab%5D%20AND% ↗↩ Back to text
  5. Product label
    VICTOZA (liraglutide) injection — Prescribing Information, NDA 022341U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2010www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2010/022341lbl.pdf ↗↩ Back to text
  6. Product label
    SAXENDA (liraglutide) injection — Prescribing Information, NDA 206321U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2014www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2014/206321Orig1s00 ↗↩ Back to text
  7. Product label
    WEGOVY (semaglutide) injection — Prescribing Information, NDA 215256U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2021www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2021/215256s000lbl. ↗↩ Back to text
  8. Product label
    OZEMPIC (semaglutide) injection — Prescribing Information, NDA 209637U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2017www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2017/209637lbl.pdf ↗↩ Back to text
  9. Regulatory
    Drugs@FDA application records for products whose active ingredient is liraglutide (openFDA)U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2026api.fda.gov/drug/drugsfda.json?search=products.active_ingredient ↗↩ Back to text
  10. Regulatory
    Drugs@FDA application records for products whose active ingredient is semaglutide (openFDA)U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2026api.fda.gov/drug/drugsfda.json?search=products.active_ingredient ↗↩ Back to text
  11. Primary study
    Effect of Weekly Subcutaneous Semaglutide vs Daily Liraglutide on Body Weight in Adults With Overweight or Obesity Without Diabetes: The STEP 8 Randomized Clinical TrialRubino DM, Greenway FL, Khalid U, et al.. JAMA, 2022 · doi:10.1001/jama.2021.23619 · PMID 35015037doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.23619 ↗↩ Back to text
  12. Primary study
    A Randomized, Controlled Trial of 3.0 mg of Liraglutide in Weight Management (SCALE)Pi-Sunyer X, Astrup A, Fujioka K, et al.. New England Journal of Medicine, 2015 · doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1411892 · PMID 26132939doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1411892 ↗↩ Back to text
  13. Primary study
    Once-Weekly Semaglutide in Adults with Overweight or Obesity (STEP 1)Wilding JPH, Batterham RL, Calanna S, et al.. New England Journal of Medicine, 2021 · doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2032183 · PMID 33567185doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2032183 ↗↩ Back to text
  14. Secondary source
    Wikimedia REST API — English Wikipedia pageviewsWikimedia Foundation, 2026wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/#/Pageviews%20data ↗↩ Back to text

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