What Cagrilintide is
Cagrilintide is a long-acting amylin analog from Novo Nordisk. Amylin slows gastric emptying and promotes satiety through a different receptor family than GLP-1, which is why cagrilintide is most often studied and used alongside semaglutide as the CagriSema combination.
It is not FDA approved as a standalone. The escalation below is the Phase 2 monotherapy schedule; combination protocols typically run both compounds on the same weekly clock.
Reconstitution math
Concentration is everything: the same 5 mg vial gives a different draw for every amount of bacteriostatic water you add. The table uses the common 2 mL setup for each vial size, which puts every unit on a U-100 insulin syringe at 25 mcg for the default vial. Dashes mark draws too small to measure or larger than the syringe.
| Vial | BAC water | Concentration | 0.25 mg | 0.5 mg | 1 mg | 1.7 mg | 2.4 mg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 mg | 2 mL | 2.5 mg/mL | 10 u | 20 u | 40 u | 68 u | 96 u |
| 10 mg | 2 mL | 5 mg/mL | 5 u | 10 u | 20 u | 34 u | 48 u |
Dosing and protocol
Phase 2 monotherapy escalation, 0.25 to 2.4 mg weekly.
With the longest half-life in this library (about 7.5 days), cagrilintide accumulates for roughly five weeks before leveling off. If you model it in the Planner stacked with semaglutide, a same-day weekly schedule for both matches how the trials dosed the pair.
Pharmacokinetics
Cagrilintide has published human pharmacokinetics: half-life about 7.5 days via a fatty di-acid albumin binder. The curves below are normalized one-compartment models built from the cited half-life, the same math the Planner uses. They show shape and timing, not absolute blood levels.
Storage and handling
Lyophilized vials keep best cold, dark, and dry; refrigeration is the community default and freezing lyophilized powder is common for long holds. After reconstitution, refrigerate at 2 to 8 C, do not freeze the solution, and date the vial. Bacteriostatic water's preservative keeps multi-dose use practical for about 28 days by USP convention, though our 120-day stability study found the preservative itself outlasts that window.
Got a certificate of analysis with your vial? Run it through our COA Reader: it reads the report in plain English, checks purity and mass against the label claim, and links the testing lab’s own verification page. Our guide to reading a COA explains what the numbers do and do not tell you.
Sources
- Lau et al., Once-weekly cagrilintide for weight management, Lancet 2021 (PMID 34798060)
- Frias et al., CagriSema in type 2 diabetes, Lancet 2023