What Survodutide is
Survodutide is an investigational GLP-1 / glucagon dual agonist from Boehringer Ingelheim and Zealand Pharma, in Phase 3 for obesity and MASH. It is not FDA approved. The glucagon arm adds direct effects on liver fat and energy expenditure on top of the familiar GLP-1 appetite effect.
What we do not know
- Investigational, not approved. Published human evidence is Phase 2.
- No head-to-head trial against tirzepatide or semaglutide has been published.
- Long-term safety is unestablished.
Reconstitution math
Concentration is everything: the same 10 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 50 mcg for the default vial. Dashes mark draws too small to measure or larger than the syringe.
| Vial | BAC water | Concentration | 0.6 mg | 1.2 mg | 2.4 mg | 3.6 mg | 4.8 mg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 mg | 2 mL | 2.5 mg/mL | 24 u | 48 u | 96 u | - | - |
| 10 mg | 2 mL | 5 mg/mL | 12 u | 24 u | 48 u | 72 u | 96 u |
| 15 mg | 2 mL | 7.5 mg/mL | 8 u | 16 u | 32 u | 48 u | 64 u |
Dosing and protocol
Phase 2 weekly escalation toward the 4.8 mg arm.
Phase 2 escalated weekly doses from 0.6 mg up to 4.8 mg in four-week steps. The albumin-bound depot gives it a roughly seven-day half-life, so it behaves like semaglutide in scheduling terms: weekly injections, steady state around week five at a given dose.
Pharmacokinetics
Survodutide has published human pharmacokinetics: subcutaneous peak at 60 to 96 hours; steady state by about week five. 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.
How it is thought to work
A dual GLP-1 and glucagon receptor agonist. Like retatrutide it pairs appetite suppression with glucagon-driven energy expenditure and hepatic fat handling, but without a GIP component.
What the evidence supports
This table grades how well each outcome has been studied in humans, not how well Survodutide works. A strong grade means the question was asked properly, and the answer may still have been negative. Nothing here is inherited from a drug class, a close analog, or the parent molecule of a fragment.
| Outcome | Strongest published evidence |
|---|---|
| MASH / liver fibrosis | Human RCT |
| Weight loss | Human RCT |
| Long-term safety | No data |
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
- Survodutide pharmacokinetics in cirrhosis, Journal of Hepatology 2024
- le Roux et al., Survodutide Phase 2 dose-finding for obesity, Lancet 2024
- NCT04771273 (Phase 2 MASH protocol)Trial registrationNCT04771273