Cortagen dosage and evidence
Written by Aaron CuhaReviewed Sep 2026
The short answer
Cortagen is a four building block peptide from Khavinson's institute in Russia. It is sold as the defined-recipe cousin of Cortexin, for brain recovery. The animal data come from a single St. Petersburg group, and nobody knows how the body absorbs it by any route.
Evidence grade for Cortagen: Animal or lab only. The rule: only animal or lab studies on this page. No study in people yet. The sum on this page: 1 animal study, 1 lab study, no human study. A grade counts how much has been done to people, not whether it works.
- People given it
- 0
- Human studies
- 0
- Found nothing
- 0
Dose
No human dose established
No published study on this page has given this compound to people and reported a result.
1 animal study, 1 lab study, no human study
4 effects reported, 3 unwanted, 1 wanted, by people using it, not a trial
In plain English
In plain English, from Aaron
This is how I would explain it to a friend. The evidence, with the numbers, is further down the page.
Cortagen is a four amino acid peptide sold for brain recovery. The evidence is one rat study and cells in a dish. It is the defined cousin of Cortexin, a brain extract from the same institute. Nobody has measured whether a capsule or a drop under the tongue gets into your blood. It is not approved.
What people take it for
- Recovering from a stroke or a head injury.
- Sharper thinking and memory.
- Repairing damaged nerves.
What studies in people showed
Nobody has tested it in a person. One rat study from 2000 cut the main nerve in the leg and gave the peptide. The nerve grew back. That was one group of rats with no control group. That is a leg nerve, not the brain. A 2020 study from the same group looked at stem cells from the mouth in a dish. There is no brain injury study in a person, and none in an animal on this page. Nobody outside the group that sells it has tested it.
What people report
Reports, not study results
The good
- A few people report clearer thinking during a course.
The bad
- Most people feel nothing.
- There is no safety data anywhere.
- It gets confused with Cortexin, which is a different product, so advice online is often about the wrong one.
Where these come from: Vendor research guides (peptides.gg, peptidedeck.com). No forum thread with specific user reports was found for this peptide. Nothing here is from a trial, because there is no trial.
My bottom line
A leg nerve in rats and stem cells in a dish, sold for your brain. I would not put it in my body.
An opinion, not a finding. I am a coach, not a doctor.
What it has been measured to do
Nothing indexed yet
The 2 citations on this page do not report a result for any of the 36 goals indexed here. Most of what sits here is something else: a listing of a planned study, a study of how the body handles the drug, a safety report or a government record. None of those tests whether it works.
Show full evidence
What is Cortagen?
Cortagen is a four building block peptide from Khavinson's institute in Russia. It is sold as the defined-recipe cousin of Cortexin, for brain recovery. The animal data come from a single St. Petersburg group, and nobody knows how the body absorbs it by any route.
Cortagen belongs to a family of short peptides made by Vladimir Khavinson's institute. Each one is pitched as a regulator for one tissue. Published work reports a cut leg nerve regrowing in rats. Like the rest of the family, almost nobody outside that group has repeated the work. There are no proper human trials. There is no data on whether a swallowed or under-the-tongue dose survives digestion.
How does Cortagen work?
The claim is that it binds directly to DNA and switches brain cell genes on or off. That is Khavinson's theory, not a proven fact.
The evidence, in charts
Fig. 1a · how many people
0people have taken this in any study cited here
0 people · 0 studies in people
What this page cites instead is 1 animal study and 1 lab study in a dish. None of them gave the compound to a person.
Counted from the list of sources on this page. We draw this chart only when a study in people is cited. An empty one is the answer, not a gap in the page.
Fig. 1b · evidence mix
None of the 2 sources here are studies in people.
- Animal study · done in animals150%
- Lab (cells in a dish) · cells or tissue150%
Counted from the list of sources on this page. It counts only what we cite, so there may be more studies out there. A review counts once, however many studies it sums up.
Fig. 2 · evidence over time
Sources here come from just two years, 2000 and 2020.
Too few different years on this page to draw a timeline. The newest source on file is from 2020, more than five years ago. Research on it may have gone quiet.
Fig. 3 · legal status at a glance
US
Not approved
UK
Not approved
AU
Not approved
CA
Not approved
Not approved in any of the four countries shown. This is what the law says, not a verdict on the science. See Legal status below for the full text and any notes.
Fig. 4 · how much does what
Nobody has tested different amounts in people
This chart would show how the effect changes as the amount goes up. For this compound, nobody has measured that in people. So we leave it empty. We will not borrow an animal chart and pretend it works the same in people.
Fig. 5 · what the molecule is
- Kind of compound
- Peptide
- Molecule weight
- 430.4 Da (Ala-Glu-Asp-Pro)
- Half-life
- Stated in words, not a numbersee the exact wording below
- Chain length
- None on file
No amino acid sequence is on file for Cortagen, so none is drawn rather than guessed from a name.
The studies we cite
- Animal study2000Effect of tetrapeptide cortagen on regeneration of sciatic nerve
In rats. A cut nerve in the leg regrew. It was one group of rats, from one lab.
Nerve regeneration in a single-group rat study.
- Lab (cells in a dish)2020Short peptides protect oral stem cells from ageing
In a dish. One cell study from the Khavinson group, typical of how narrow the evidence is.
One Khavinson-group cell study; representative of the single-lineage evidence base.
Where to buy Cortagen
30 sellers list Cortagen in our latest read. They are ranked by trust score, then by archive rating, then by certificate tier, then by the lowest price per milligram. Archive evidence is counted before source-backed. Each path is out of 4, and the two are not added. A higher price does not raise the score. The letter is the certificate chip. 0 of them have a published certificate that names Cortagen.
Some seller links may pay this site when you buy through them. A payment never changes a seller's tier or rank, and no seller has a say in any page.
| Seller | Trust score | Vial sizes | From, per mg | Certificate for Cortagen | Seller link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eros Peptides | 80 StrongSource-backed 3 of 4. Archive evidence 2 of 4.A | 20 mg | $3.00 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Peptide Power US | 77 StrongSource-backed 4 of 4. Archive evidence 2 of 4.A | 20 mg | $3.35 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Core Peptides | 75 StrongSource-backed 4 of 4. Archive evidence 2 of 4.A | 20 mg | $2.95 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| BioGenix Peptides | 75 StrongSource-backed 4 of 4. Archive evidence 2 of 4.A | 20 mg | $3.40 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Go Alpha Labs | 49 WeakSource-backed 3 of 4. Archive evidence 2 of 4.A | 20 mg | $2.10 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Luxe Peptides | 49 WeakSource-backed 3 of 4. Archive evidence 2 of 4.A | 20 mg | $2.25 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Core Peptides Official | 49 WeakSource-backed 3 of 4. Archive evidence 2 of 4.A | 20 mg | $2.50 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Peptify Labs | 49 WeakSource-backed 3 of 4. Archive evidence 2 of 4.A | 20 mg | $2.75 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| True Lab Peptides | 49 WeakSource-backed 3 of 4. Archive evidence 2 of 4.A | 20 mg | $2.75 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Cenexa Labs | 49 WeakSource-backed 2 of 4. Archive evidence 2 of 4.B | 20 mg | $2.95 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Pure Peptide Factory | 48 WeakSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 1 of 4.C | 20 mg | $4.00 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Solution Peptides | 48 WeakSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 0 of 4.C | 20 mg | $3.00 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| USA Peptide Science Shop | 45 WeakSource-backed 2 of 4. Archive evidence 1 of 4.B | 20 mg | $5.00 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Pryma Lab | 43 WeakSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 0 of 4.C | 20 mg | $1.70 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Atomik Labz | 43 WeakSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 0 of 4.C | 20 mg | $3.00 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Atomix | 39 WeakSource-backed 4 of 4. Archive evidence 2 of 4.A | 20 mg | $2.75 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Canlab International | 37 WeakSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 1 of 4.C | 20 mg | $3.00 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Arizona Mall | 36 WeakSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 1 of 4.C | 20 mg | $0.600 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Limitless Biotech ST | 36 WeakSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 1 of 4.C | 20 mg | $2.95 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Aries Peptide Research | 36 WeakSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 1 of 4.C | 20 mg | $3.25 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Lejian Biotech Peptide | 35 WeakSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 1 of 4.C | 20 mg | $2.50 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| LabRat Peptides | 28 InsufficientSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 1 of 4.C | 20 mg | $1.65 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Boston Molecules | 28 InsufficientSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 1 of 4.C | 10 mg | $97.2 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Huaian Hanyou Peptide | 25 InsufficientSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 1 of 4.C | 20 mg | $2.50 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| MJA Peptides | 25 InsufficientSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 1 of 4.C | 20 mg | $2.50 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| ZL Peptides | 25 InsufficientSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 1 of 4.C | 20 mg | $2.50 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Peptide Science LLC | 25 InsufficientSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 1 of 4.C | 20 mg | $3.25 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| USA Peptide Sciences | 25 InsufficientSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 1 of 4.C | 20 mg | $3.25 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Pure Health Peptides | 25 InsufficientSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 0 of 4.C | 20 mg | $2.45 | None found for Cortagen | View |
| Pura Peptides | 25 InsufficientSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 0 of 4.C | 20 mg | $2.75 | None found for Cortagen | View |
- LC Lab-confirmed: the issuing laboratory echoed this certificate back
- A Current certificate, independent laboratory named, laboratory not yet checked
- B Certificate published, but no laboratory link, older than a year, or the laboratory did not recognise the published lookup
- C No certificate could be read
Every listing and vial size for Cortagen · How the trust score is counted
Sellers named on the price pages are ranked by certificate tier, then price, and any affiliate income is disclosed there. Naming a seller is not a recommendation to buy or use anything.
Common questions
Has Cortagen been tested in people?
Not in any study cited here. Cortagen is a four building block peptide from Khavinson's institute in Russia. It is sold as the defined-recipe cousin of Cortexin, for brain recovery. The animal data come from a single St. Petersburg group, and nobody knows how the body absorbs it by any route.
What is the Cortagen dosage?
No human dose established. No published study on this page has given this compound to people and reported a result. 1 animal study, 1 lab study, no human study
Is Cortagen FDA-approved?
Not approved
Is Cortagen just Cortexin?
Cortexin is an undefined mix of peptides taken from brains. Cortagen is one defined four building block peptide from the same research group. Neither has independent human trials.