eloralintide

a weight-loss drug eli lilly is still testing, given in trials as a once-a-week injection under the skin. it copies amylin, the fullness hormone the pancreas releases with insulin at a meal. 20% weight loss at 48 weeks in one 263-person phase 2, and 64.3% nausea in the fixed 6 mg arm. five phase 3 trials are enrolling and none reads out before 2028.

tier B · weight loss · 20% mean weight change in the 9 mg phase 2 arm

verdict

a weight-loss drug eli lilly has in development, given as a once-a-week injection under the skin, which works by turning up the body's own after-meal fullness signal. formally an amylin receptor agonist, code LY3841136. one published 48-week phase 2 (NCT06230523, n=263) produced up to 20% mean weight loss with no incretin anywhere in the molecule. eli lilly sponsors every trial on the record, the phase 3 programme has yet to report, and nausea reached 64.3% in the fixed 6 mg arm, which the selectivity pitch did not predict.

what it is

A lab-built copy of amylin, the hormone the pancreas releases with insulin at a meal to tell the brain the meal is over. That signal travels through the area postrema in the brainstem. Eli Lilly engineered it, and the literature carries it as LY3841136; ChEMBL also lists AMY-1176 and AMY1176. It is a 37-amino-acid analog of human amylin. Eloralintide replaces the native disulfide with a methylene thioacetal bridge and carries a C20 fatty diacid on Lys26, which supports albumin binding and a measured terminal half-life of 310 to 366 hours in phase 1. Three non-coded residues sit at positions 11, 15 and 22. The design goal was potency at the AMY1 receptor relative to the calcitonin receptor. In Lilly's translational work the human AMY1R EC50 was 23.9 pM against 291.0 pM at the human calcitonin receptor, about a 12-fold difference. No US approval record was located as of 2026-08-12.

what it does

Takes weight off by strengthening the body's own sense of fullness after a meal. It activates amylin receptors in the area postrema, a pathway separate from GLP-1 and GIP. In a phase 1 single-ascending-dose study (n=48 healthy adults) day-29 bodyweight fell 4.4% at 12 mg against a 0.6% gain on placebo. In a 12-week phase 1b multiple-ascending-dose study with no dose escalation (n=100 with overweight or obesity), placebo-adjusted weight reduction ran 2.6% at 1.2 mg, 8.9% at 3 mg, 8.5% at 6 mg and 11.3% at 12 mg. In the 48-week phase 2 (NCT06230523, n=263) mean bodyweight change reached -20% at 9 mg against -0.4% on placebo. A DXA substudy put 60% to 70% of the mass lost as fat, which the sponsor's own slide describes as on par with other obesity treatments.

origin

Eli Lilly's discovery-to-phase-1 package was published in Molecular Metabolism in 2025 by Briere and colleagues, all Lilly employees and shareholders. First-in-human dosing began 30 March 2022 (NCT05295940). The 48-week phase 2 ran from 5 February 2024 to 14 August 2025 under Lilly's chronic-weight-management master protocol and was published in the Lancet in December 2025. Five ENLIGHTEN phase 3 registrations are recruiting, with no posted results.

does it work

The phase 2 was randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, ran 48 weeks across 46 US centres, and met its bodyweight primary endpoint; the 9 mg confidence interval ran -22.7% to -17.5%. The supporting phase 1 and phase 1b work is published and consistent with a weight signal. What is missing remains important. Five phase 3 trials are recruiting, with no posted results and an earliest listed primary completion in January 2028. Eli Lilly sponsors every trial and authors every primary paper cited here, so independent confirmation is absent. Nausea reached 64.3% in the fixed 6 mg arm over 48 weeks. The human efficacy claim rests on one phase 2, while larger and longer safety and efficacy results remain unknown.

key facts

• amino acids: 37
• half-life: 310 to 366 h (12.9 to 15.3 days) across 0.4 to 12 mg in phase 1
• type: selective long-acting amylin receptor (AMY1R) agonist
• -20% 9 mg arm at 48 weeks, phase 2 (n=263)
• 1 published efficacy trial, sponsor-run
• 5,615 estimated phase 3 enrollment, zero results
• 64.3% nausea in the fixed 6 mg arm

frequently asked questions

How is eloralintide different from cagrilintide?

Both are long-acting amylin analogs. Lilly designed eloralintide for greater AMY1 potency relative to the calcitonin receptor. The only direct comparison cited here was subcutaneous dosing in rats, where body-composition and conditioned-taste results favored parts of eloralintide's profile. No head-to-head human trial exists, so the rat result cannot be transferred into a human efficacy or tolerability claim.

related peptides

• cagrilintide: a different amylin analog; the cited rat comparison does not establish human superiority
• cagrisema: a distinct two-drug combination; its efficacy and safety results do not transfer to eloralintide
• tirzepatide: a distinct approved medicine and study partner; its label does not apply to eloralintide

reptides grades the research record and cites the literature behind every call. research reference only; not medical advice.