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PEPTIDE READER

Weight, blood sugar & heart

Peptides for blood sugar and type 2 diabetes

Six of the eight peptides here are approved medicines with an agreed, registered use, and all of them are prescription-only.

The evidence mix

The 8 peptides on this page, by how well they have been tested.

  1. Approved medicine6 peptides
  2. Still being tested in people1 peptide
  3. Tested in people, but barely1 peptide
  4. Only tested on animalsnone on this page
  5. No real evidence at allnone on this page
How we grade evidence

For five waves of new records this was the one page in the register where that held of everything on it. Two entries ended it, in different ways. One is approved in China, which this scale does not count as approval, because the ladder is defined by what the European and US regulators have authorised — so it sits a rung lower despite four published phase 3 trials. The other is a food supplement whose blood-sugar evidence is eight small trials pooling 377 people, against tens of thousands for the approved medicines above it. This page describes the evidence, not who should be given what.

All 8 peptides on this page

Strongest evidence first.

Filter these in the full register

Approved medicine

Approved by the European or US medicines regulator for a named condition, after large randomised trials, with a public product information sheet anyone can read.

6 peptides

  1. Evidence level 5 of 5: Approved medicine

    Dulaglutide

    Trulicity · LY2189265

    Approved for type 2 diabetes, and in the US also for reducing heart attacks and strokes in people who already have it — but not approved anywhere for weight loss.

    Ten randomised trials and a 9,901-person heart trial support the diabetes and heart claims; the weight it takes off is real but small, about 3.2 kg against 1.5 kg on dummy injections.

    Sold as: Metabolic

  2. Evidence level 5 of 5: Approved medicine

    Exenatide

    Byetta · Bydureon

    Approved for type 2 diabetes since 2005, and the first medicine of its kind anywhere — a synthetic copy of a lizard peptide, not a human hormone.

    Placebo-controlled trials show lower blood sugar and one to two kilograms of weight loss, but the 14,752-person heart trial missed its target and newer weekly injections beat it in head-to-head trials.

    Sold as: Metabolic

  3. Evidence level 5 of 5: Approved medicine

    Insulin (human insulin)

    Humulin · Insuman

    Approved to control blood sugar in people with diabetes.

    Its benefits and risks are supported by large, long-running clinical trials and routine medical use.

    Sold as: Therapeutic

  4. Evidence level 5 of 5: Approved medicine

    Liraglutide

    Saxenda · Victoza

    Approved for type 2 diabetes and weight management.

    Large controlled trials show lower blood sugar and weight loss compared with placebo.

    Sold as: Metabolic

  5. Evidence level 5 of 5: Approved medicine

    Semaglutide

    Ozempic · Wegovy

    Approved for type 2 diabetes and weight management.

    Large controlled trials show lower blood sugar, substantial weight loss and fewer cardiovascular events in specific groups.

    Sold as: Metabolic

  6. Evidence level 5 of 5: Approved medicine

    Tirzepatide

    Mounjaro · Zepbound

    Approved for type 2 diabetes and weight management.

    Large controlled trials show lower blood sugar and substantial weight loss compared with placebo and other treatments.

    Sold as: Metabolic

Still being tested in people

Currently in registered clinical trials in humans, but not approved anywhere yet. The trials may still fail — most drugs at this stage do.

1 peptide

  1. Evidence level 4 of 5: Still being tested in people

    Mazdutide

    IBI362 · LY3305677

    Approved in China for weight loss and type 2 diabetes, and experimental everywhere else.

    Four published phase 3 trials show large weight loss and lower blood sugar against dummy injections, all of them run in China.

    Sold as: Metabolic

Tested in people, but barely

Human studies exist, but they are small, short, uncontrolled, paid for by the seller, or they measure something easy to measure instead of something that matters.

1 peptide

  1. Evidence level 3 of 5: Tested in people, but barely

    Carnosine

    L-carnosine · beta-alanyl-L-histidine

    Sold as a supplement for ageing, exercise performance and eye health.

    Blood sugar came down against a dummy capsule in two small trials, but an enzyme in blood destroys it within minutes, most of the exercise evidence is really about beta-alanine, and pooled autism trials found no difference from placebo.

    Sold as: Supplement