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Amycretin
Amycretin is a real, investigational obesity and diabetes peptide from Novo Nordisk — a single peptide molecule engineered to be a first-in-class GLP-1/amylin dual receptor agonist, developed in parallel subcutaneous (weekly) and oral (daily) forms. It completes this site's amylin-pathway cluster alongside cagrilintide, with genuinely published Phase 1 efficacy data behind it, but it remains earlier in development than this site's other 2026 GLP-1-family additions: its Phase 3 program was only just beginning as of this review, and its most recent, most positive diabetes results are still company-reported topline figures.
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In brief
Should you care? Relevant alongside this site's cagrilintide page — amycretin pairs the same amylin-receptor biology with GLP-1 agonism in a single molecule, rather than combining two separate drugs, and is being developed as both an injectable and a pill.The short version
- A single peptide molecule engineered to activate both the GLP-1 receptor and the amylin receptor — a genuinely different design from maridebart cafraglutide's antibody-peptide conjugate or survodutide's GLP-1/glucagon peptide.
- Published Phase 1 data (Lancet, June 2025) found up to roughly 24% weight loss at 36 weeks with the subcutaneous form, and up to roughly 13% at 12 weeks with an oral tablet.
- A November 2025 type 2 diabetes trial reported further weight loss and blood-sugar benefits, leading Novo Nordisk to expand its pivotal program — but that data is still company-reported, not yet a full peer-reviewed publication.
What it is, and the mechanism
This site's cagrilintide page covers an amylin-receptor analog developed to be combined with semaglutide as a separate co-formulated drug (CagriSema). Amycretin takes a different design approach to the same underlying biology: it is a single, "unimolecular" peptide engineered to activate both the GLP-1 receptor and the amylin receptor itself, rather than pairing two separate molecules. GLP-1 agonism suppresses appetite and slows gastric emptying; amylin-receptor agonism adds a second, complementary satiety signal. Novo Nordisk is developing amycretin in two parallel forms — a once-weekly subcutaneous injection and a once-daily oral tablet — making it, alongside the company's existing oral semaglutide, part of its broader effort to bring peptide-based metabolic drugs to a pill rather than an injection.
The published Phase 1 evidence, subcutaneous and oral
Two Phase 1 trials, both conducted in adults with overweight or obesity and both published in the Lancet in June 2025, form amycretin's current published evidence base. A first-in-human safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic study (Gasiorek A, Heydorn A, Gabery S, et al., Lancet 2025;406(10499):135-148, PMID 40550229) tested single and multiple ascending doses and reported the drug as safe and tolerable; its oral-tablet arm found a 12-week weight change of -10.4% at 50mg and -13.1% at a split 2×50mg dose, versus -1.2% with placebo. A separate subcutaneous phase 1b/2a dose-ranging study (Lancet 2025, PMID 40550231) enrolled 125 adults (101 on amycretin, 24 on placebo) between September 2023 and April 2024 at a single US site in San Antonio, Texas, and reported weight loss of up to roughly 24.3% at the highest (60mg) dose at 36 weeks, versus 1.1% with placebo — one of the larger weight-loss figures reported anywhere on this site at this early a stage of development. The separate oral-tablet trial above enrolled its own, differently sized cohort. Across both studies, treatment-emergent adverse events were mostly mild-to-moderate and gastrointestinal, occurring in a dose-dependent pattern.
The 2025 type 2 diabetes data that expanded the program
On 25 November 2025, Novo Nordisk reported topline results from a Phase 2 trial of amycretin in 448 adults with type 2 diabetes inadequately controlled on metformin, with or without an SGLT2 inhibitor. Over 36 weeks, the subcutaneous form produced weight loss of up to 14.5% and HbA1c reductions of up to 1.8 percentage points; the oral form produced weight loss of up to 10.1% and HbA1c reductions of up to 1.5 points. On the strength of this data, Novo Nordisk said it would advance amycretin into a dedicated Phase 3 program specifically in type 2 diabetes, in addition to the broader Phase 3 obesity program the company had already said it planned to begin in the first quarter of 2026.
What's still unresolved
Amycretin is not approved anywhere, and no regulatory filing has been submitted for any indication as of this review. It is genuinely earlier in its development timeline than this site's other newly added GLP-1-family pages: its Phase 3 programs, in both obesity and type 2 diabetes, were only just getting underway in 2026 rather than already reading out. The oral formulation in particular has the thinnest efficacy data of the two dosing forms so far, and none of amycretin's trials to date have been large or long enough to characterize its longer-term safety profile the way a completed Phase 3 program would.
References
- Gasiorek A, Heydorn A, Gabery S, et al., "Safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of the first-in-class GLP-1 and amylin receptor agonist, amycretin: a first-in-human, phase 1, randomised, placebo-controlled study," Lancet 2025;406(10499):135-148, PMID 40550229.
- "Amycretin, a novel, unimolecular GLP-1 and amylin receptor agonist administered subcutaneously: results from a phase 1b/2a randomised controlled study," Lancet 2025, PMID 40550231.
- Novo Nordisk press release, "Novo Nordisk phase 2 trial with amycretin reports significant weight loss and HbA1c reduction in type 2 diabetes," 25 November 2025 (company-reported, not yet peer-reviewed).