Cagrilintide Half-Life: How Long It Stays in Your System

Cagrilintide half-life

A half-life depends on the route (under the skin, into a vein, by mouth or nasal spray) and the species it was measured in, so we report each value with its route and source.

What half-life means

Half-life is the time it takes for the amount of a drug in the blood to fall by half. After one half-life, about 50% is left; after two, about 25%; after four to five, only a few percent remain.

• A long half-life lets a drug be dosed less often, for example once a week.
• A short half-life means levels rise and fall quickly, which is why some peptides are given daily or more often.
• Effects can outlast blood levels, so half-life alone does not tell you how long a drug works.

What it means for dosing frequency

Dosing intervals used in published studies of Cagrilintide:

• single dose, subcutaneous (Human controlled trial; Clinical pharmacokinetics 2026, PMID 42228334)
• once weekly, subcutaneous (Human RCT; Diabetes, obesity & metabolism 2024, PMID 39279639)
• once weekly, subcutaneous (Human RCT; Lancet 2021, PMID 34798060)
• once weekly, subcutaneous (Human RCT; Lancet 2021, PMID 33894838)

Changing the interval changes how much drug builds up between doses, so it is not a free choice.

Drug tests and sport

Cagrilintide is not named, and GLP-1/amylin class agonists are not listed. But it is an investigational drug with no approval in the sources we reviewed, and S0 prohibits drugs under clinical development that no authority has approved. If it is approved somewhere this would change.

Anti-doping labs use tests built for specific substances. Whether a given test detects Cagrilintide, and for how long, is not reported in the anti-doping literature we checked (as of 2 Oct 2026). Tested athletes should treat it as prohibited (s0) at all times.