Survodutide is a once-weekly injectable peptide that hits two receptors at once: the GLP-1 receptor and the glucagon receptor. It was developed by Boehringer Ingelheim under the code BI 456906, building on peptide chemistry licensed from Zealand Pharma. You may also see it listed by its CAS number, 2805997-46-8. It is investigational. As of mid-2026 it is not approved by the FDA or EMA for any use, and nothing here is medical or dosing advice.
What it is and how it works
Most of the well-known incretin drugs (semaglutide, for instance) act on the GLP-1 receptor alone. Survodutide is built from a glucagon backbone and engineered to activate both GLP-1 and glucagon receptors. A C18 fatty diacid chain is attached to the peptide, which extends its half-life enough for weekly subcutaneous dosing.
The two-receptor design is the whole point. GLP-1 signaling curbs appetite and slows gastric emptying. Glucagon signaling, at the doses used here, is thought to push up energy expenditure and act on the liver. In animal models, survodutide reduced body weight, lowered food intake, and improved glucose tolerance through both receptors together. Boehringer's pitch is that adding glucagon agonism may do more for fatty liver than GLP-1 alone.
The research so far
The clinical evidence is substantial for a drug still in development.
Fatty liver (MASH). A 48-week phase 2 trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2024 tested survodutide at 2.4, 4.8, or 6.0 mg weekly against placebo in adults with biopsy-confirmed MASH (metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis) and fibrosis stages F1 to F3. Improvement in MASH without worsening of fibrosis occurred in 47%, 62%, and 43% of the dose groups, versus 14% on placebo. The drug met its primary endpoint. See Sanyal et al., NEJM 2024.
Obesity. A phase 2 dose-finding trial in adults with overweight or obesity (no type 2 diabetes) reported mean weight loss from baseline to 46 weeks of roughly 6.2% at the lowest dose up to 14.9% at 4.8 mg, against 2.8% for placebo. Results were published in The Lancet. A later phase 3 readout from Boehringer (SYNCHRONIZE-1) reported average weight loss of about 16.6% at 76 weeks versus 3.2% on placebo.
Type 2 diabetes. A separate phase 2 trial compared survodutide against placebo and open-label semaglutide, looking at HbA1c and body weight over 16 weeks (published in *Diabetes Care / PMC10844353*).
Reported tolerability looks like the GLP-1 class, with gastrointestinal effects (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea) the most common adverse events. These are trial findings, not a safety guarantee.
Regulatory status
Survodutide remains investigational. The FDA granted it Fast Track designation for MASH in 2021 and Breakthrough Therapy designation for noncirrhotic MASH with moderate-to-advanced fibrosis in October 2024, per Boehringer's announcement. Those designations speed up review; they are not approvals. Phase 3 programs (the LIVERAGE trials for MASH, SYNCHRONIZE for obesity) are running.
On anti-doping: survodutide is a peptide hormone agonist in the same broad metabolic class as other GLP-1 drugs. Athletes subject to WADA testing should check the current Prohibited List and consult their governing body rather than rely on any general statement here.
The quality angle for buyers
Survodutide is a patented compound owned by a major pharmaceutical company and is not sold as a consumer product. Any vial offered online outside a clinical trial is not Boehringer's drug and carries no guarantee of identity, purity, or dose. Material marketed this way is research-use-only and not for human consumption.
If you are evaluating a research-chemical vendor for any peptide, the documentation matters more than the marketing: a recent third-party certificate of analysis (COA) with mass-spec identity and HPLC purity, tied to the specific batch you would receive. peptideone aggregates published COAs and independent vendor ratings so those claims can be checked side by side. We run no tests of our own and sell nothing.