Oxyntomodulin vs Cotadutide
Written by Aaron CuhaReviewed Sep 2026
The short answer
The natural gut hormone that hits both the GLP-1 and glucagon switches, and the lab made copy built from it. Every drug in development that hits both switches traces back to this model.
- Oxyntomodulin people
- 13
- Oxyntomodulin nulls
- 1
- Cotadutide people
- 1,221
- Cotadutide nulls
- 1
Dose
No human dose established
Amounts that were given in studies sit in Human evidence on this page. None of them is a personal dose.
1 completed trial, 13 people given it
Dose
No human dose established
Amounts that were given in studies sit in Human evidence on this page. None of them is a personal dose.
6 completed trials, 1,221 people given it
First-hand reports are counted on each profile and never added together. This page sets two published records side by side. It does not pick a winner.
Column A
OxyntomodulinOxyntomodulin (glucagon-37)
Oxyntomodulin is glucagon with eight extra building blocks on the end. That tail lets it weakly switch on two hormone receptors at once, glucagon's and GLP-1's. It is the natural model for every drug that hits both.
Column B
CotadutideCotadutide (MEDI0382), GLP-1 and glucagon receptor dual agonist
A once-a-day shot that acts on both GLP-1 and glucagon. AstraZeneca stopped developing it in 2023. Its own registry entries call the reason strategic pipeline planning, not safety. It leaves mid-stage studies in more than a thousand people with type 2 diabetes, kidney disease and fatty liver inflammation (MASH). It never reached a large final-stage study.
Side by side, on the facts we can check
| What we compare | Oxyntomodulin | Cotadutide |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Metabolic | Metabolic |
| FDA status | Not approved and not sold anywhere. It matters to medicine as a model for designing new drugs. | Never approved anywhere. AstraZeneca stopped work on it in early 2023, and said it was a business choice about which drugs to pursue (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05668936 and NCT05517226). No final-stage study was ever registered. |
| Half-life | Short. Rapidly degraded by dipeptidyl peptidase-4. No single verified numeric half-life is asserted here because our sources do not agree on one. | Not reported |
| Molecular weight | 37 amino acids, residues 53 to 89 of pro-glucagon (UniProt P01275). No FDA label exists, so no label-derived mass. | Not reported |
| How it works | It weakly switches on two receptors, glucagon's and GLP-1's, and has none of its own. The idea behind the pair is that GLP-1 turns down appetite while glucagon raises how much energy you burn. So you might eat less and burn more at the same time. The eat-less half is well shown in people. The burn-more half is where the evidence gets mixed. | In people, cotadutide's GLP-1 side does the familiar things for this drug family. It boosts insulin after meals, slows how fast the stomach empties, and cuts how much people eat. In a 65 person study, the blood sugar rise after meals fell 21.5 percent, against a 6.3 percent increase on a dummy injection. Insulin after meals rose, and the stomach took about two hours longer to empty half its contents. In a 19 person energy study, weight loss came from eating 41.3 percent less. Energy burned, measured with a gold-standard water test, barely changed. The glucagon side is what set it apart. In a study that scanned the liver, cotadutide cut stored liver sugar (glycogen) after meals and while fasting. It also cut liver fat. Both fell more than on a dummy injection and more than on liraglutide. The researchers read this as glucagon acting directly on the human liver and making it release stored sugar. The rest comes from animals. In animals, switching on the glucagon receptor also raises energy burned and fat burning in the liver. The mouse study most cited for cotadutide's liver effects (Nature Metabolism, 2020) found its weight and blood sugar effects ran mainly through GLP-1. Its effects on liver fat, stored sugar and the cell's energy factories ran through glucagon. At the same weight loss, it cut liver scarring in mice more than liraglutide or obeticholic acid did. That paper is animal work, in mice with fatty liver inflammation. It has been wrongly cited as a human study. It is not one. |
| Studies in people | 4 | 8 |
| Evidence | Limited: 1 completed trial, 13 people given it | Strong: 6 completed trials, 1,221 people given it |
| Legal status, US | Not a drug; a natural body hormone, given only by drip in research | Investigational, not approved |
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Oxyntomodulin and Cotadutide?
Oxyntomodulin: Oxyntomodulin is glucagon with eight extra building blocks on the end. That tail lets it weakly switch on two hormone receptors at once, glucagon's and GLP-1's. It is the natural model for every drug that hits both. Cotadutide: A once-a-day shot that acts on both GLP-1 and glucagon. AstraZeneca stopped developing it in 2023. Its own registry entries call the reason strategic pipeline planning, not safety. It leaves mid-stage studies in more than a thousand people with type 2 diabetes, kidney disease and fatty liver inflammation (MASH). It never reached a large final-stage study.
Which has stronger research evidence, Oxyntomodulin or Cotadutide?
Each compound gets a band worked out from facts we counted, with the math shown. Oxyntomodulin is Limited (1 completed trial, 13 people given it). Cotadutide is Strong (6 completed trials, 1,221 people given it). That counts how much has been done in people. It does not rate whether either one works, and neither one is called the winner.
Are Oxyntomodulin and Cotadutide FDA-approved?
Oxyntomodulin: Not approved and not sold anywhere. It matters to medicine as a model for designing new drugs.. Cotadutide: Never approved anywhere. AstraZeneca stopped work on it in early 2023, and said it was a business choice about which drugs to pursue (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05668936 and NCT05517226). No final-stage study was ever registered..
Reviewed Sep 2026. This page puts two published records side by side. It is for learning, and it is not medical advice. When this site shows a dose, it is the dose a trial or a clinic actually used, or what people say they did, with the source attached. None of it tells you what to take.