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Long-acting amylin analogue (investigational) · dosing
Cagrilintide dosage: what the trials studied
The published trial tested 0.3–4.5 mg once weekly (phase 2 dose-finding arms, reached by 4-week escalation steps). It enrolled 706 participants and ran as the 26-week phase 2 dose-finding trial. Cagrilintide has no approved dosing label. The registry records 5 active regimens. Those are randomized study regimens, not a schedule for personal use.
Source: Lau DCW et al. Once-weekly cagrilintide for weight management: dose-finding phase 2 trial. Lancet 2021;398:2160-72 (PMID 34798060)
What matters first
The published trial dosing program
These are the once-weekly dose groups used in the published trial. The table prints only the dose detail the source supplies. They describe a randomized protocol under monitoring, not a recommended titration schedule.
| Arm | Once-weekly dose | Position in the studied range | How the trial reached it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.3 mg | Lowest arm studied | — |
| 2 | 0.6 mg | Intermediate arm | — |
| 3 | 1.2 mg | Intermediate arm | — |
| 4 | 2.4 mg | Intermediate arm | the dose carried into phase 3 as part of CagriSema |
| 5 | 4.5 mg | Highest arm studied | highest arm: −10.8% (11.5 kg) |
Source: Lau DCW et al. Once-weekly cagrilintide for weight management: dose-finding phase 2 trial. Lancet 2021;398:2160-72 (PMID 34798060) · retrieved 2026-08-17 · the paths above reproduce only the doses the source names. The source does not turn those paths into advice.
| Target-dose group | Mean change at 26 weeks | How the paper reports it |
|---|---|---|
| 4.5 mg weekly | 10.8% decrease | highest arm: −10.8% (11.5 kg) |
| Placebo | 3% decrease | Placebo group |
Source: Lau DCW et al. Once-weekly cagrilintide for weight management: dose-finding phase 2 trial. Lancet 2021;398:2160-72 (PMID 34798060) · retrieved 2026-08-17. Only outcomes the cited paper reports for a named arm appear here; no missing result is estimated.
Why there is no Cagrilintide dosage chart
A dosage chart is a regulatory artifact before it is an editorial one. It exists when an agency has reviewed a sponsor’s trials, agreed a schedule, and bound the manufacturer to a product of stated identity and potency. Cagrilintide has none of that yet.
One trial cannot prove long-term safety or show that the result applies to everyone. The highest dose tested is a study dose, not a target for personal use.
Cagrilintide is still in trials and is not FDA-approved.
The REDEFINE trials pair it with semaglutide in one shot called CagriSema. There is no approved cagrilintide product or dose. The amounts below come from studies, not a dosing guide.
Sites that publish a titration chart for a compound at this stage have built it by inference. They take a trial’s target dose and reverse-engineer a plausible ramp toward it. The result looks exactly like a supported schedule and should not be read as one. The table shows only the trial arms that were actually studied.
What this trial record still does not connect
The table above answers one narrow question: what the completed injection study tested. It does not join separate formulations or unfinished trials into a single path. Three boundaries remain attached to the record:
- Phase 3 studies cagrilintide co-formulated with semaglutide (CagriSema), not alone
3Reference details
Which syringe barrel the units are read on
A unit is not a unit. A U-100 and a U-50 barrel both print 0.01 mL per graduation; a U-40 barrel prints 0.025 mL. The same printed number therefore measures 2.5× the volume on a U-40. That is why every unit figure on this page names its barrel. It is also why a unit count copied from someone else’s syringe means nothing on its own.
| Barrel | Capacity | One graduation | 0.5 mL reads as |
|---|---|---|---|
| U-100 insulin syringe · 1 mL · lines every 2 units | 1 mL | 0.010 mL | 50 units |
| U-100 insulin syringe · 0.5 mL · lines every 1 unit | 0.5 mL | 0.010 mL | 50 units |
| U-40 insulin syringe · 1 mL · lines every 1 unit | 1 mL | 0.025 mL | 20 units |
Barrel capacities and graduation spacing are the printed scales this site’s calculator measures against, not estimates. Three barrels carry only two scales: a U-50 is a half-length U-100, so it reads identically per unit and simply runs out sooner.
What one graduation is worth at each concentration
Reconstitution fixes a concentration, and the concentration fixes what a single graduation carries — before anyone decides what to draw. Below is every pairing of this page’s vial sizes and water volumes, as a concentration and as the mass one U-100 graduation holds at it. No dose is implied by any cell; it is division.
| Vial | + 1 mL water | + 2 mL water |
|---|---|---|
| 5 mg | 5 mg/mL50 mcg per unit | 2.5 mg/mL25 mcg per unit |
| 10 mg | 10 mg/mL100 mcg per unit | 5 mg/mL50 mcg per unit |
Vial strengths and water volumes are the Cagrilintide record’s own presets. One U-100 graduation is 0.01 mL, so the mass it carries is the concentration times that volume. That is the entire reason the same milligram figure produces a different unit count in every row.
How dosing works in this class
Why the dose escalates instead of starting where it ends
The dose climbs in steps for one reason: how well people tolerate it, not how well it works. The receptors that produce the effect you want are the same ones that slow your stomach down, and your gut reacts hardest when the exposure is new. Hold it steady and the reaction fades. Stepping up gradually is a way of using that — each step is a stretch of time for your body to settle at where it is before the next increase arrives.
The length of each step matters. Shortening it moves the next increase into a period when the body may not have adjusted. Labels and trial plans state the intervals that were tested. A faster ramp was not tested.
Why trial dose groups are not a dosing schedule
A dose-finding trial is an experiment about doses, not a recommendation of one. Its arms exist to spread people across a range so researchers can see the shape of the curve. Some arms are set deliberately low, where too little effect is expected. Others are set high, where people are expected to struggle. Reading the top arm as the target gets the design backwards: the reason for running the whole range was that nobody yet knew which part of it was right.
Trial doses came with screening, monitoring, a set schedule and drug of tested strength and purity. Removing a milligram figure from those conditions removes much of what made it meaningful. The table therefore shows what researchers tested, not a schedule to follow.
Concentration changes the units, not the dose
The dose and the syringe draw are two different things. The dose is a mass in milligrams. The draw is a volume in syringe units. It depends on the concentration after mixing. Adding more bacteriostatic water changes the unit reading, but not the dose.
This matters because a unit count copied from someone else’s vial means nothing without their concentration. That mismatch is the most common way a self-injected dose ends up ten times off. The arithmetic is fixed and safe to state as fact. The dose you apply it to is a clinical decision, and it is not.
Compounded vial?
No approved Cagrilintide product exists, so nothing here describes one. The calculator does arithmetic only: it converts a milligram figure and a reconstitution into a volume and a unit count, and it takes no position on which figure belongs in the box.
Open the Cagrilintide calculator →Questions about Cagrilintide dosing
What are the typical Cagrilintide dosages?
The trial ran 5 once-weekly regimens between 0.3 mg and 4.5 mg for 26 weeks. An arm is a group a protocol assigned, not a dosage anybody settled on. These are study regimens, not an approved dosing schedule.
How fast can the Cagrilintide dose increase?
The trial ran as a 26-week phase 2 dose-finding trial. The page’s own description is once weekly (phase 2 dose-finding arms, reached by 4-week escalation steps). Nothing published here establishes what a faster ramp would produce.
What if side effects make the next step too hard?
The next increase is optional, not automatic. The label allows a longer stay at the current step when needed. A clinician decides what happens after a dose is hard to handle; the schedule alone cannot make that decision.
Does the starting Cagrilintide dose treat the condition?
Yes. One randomized group received 0.3 mg once weekly for 26 weeks. That proves the dose was studied; it does not make it an approved starting dose or a recommendation.
What is the highest Cagrilintide dose on the page?
The highest arm studied was 4.5 mg once weekly. It is simply the highest amount the trial tested. It is not a maximum dose, because no regulator has set one.
Does a compounded vial change the schedule?
No. The dose is a mass in milligrams and comes from the source; the draw is a volume in syringe units and comes from dividing that mass by the concentration reconstitution produced. Adding more bacteriostatic water to the same vial changes every unit figure and changes no dose at all. That is also why a unit count copied from someone else’s vial means nothing without their concentration.
Why do some compounds here have a chart and others do not?
Because a chart is a claim about provenance, not a formatting choice. Where an FDA-approved label specifies a schedule, this site quotes it row by row and cites the label under the table. Where no label exists, the guide shows what trials tested and says plainly that it is not a schedule. For Cagrilintide, that is the 26-week phase 2 dose-finding trial above.
Where to go next on Cagrilintide
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Compare the cagrilintide schedule against the others
Check the same draw on a vial that is not cagrilintide
The proceedings behind the cagrilintide note on this page
Every compound guide, cagrilintide and the rest
What a source must satisfy to appear on cagrilintide