Is Cotadutide legal in the United States?

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.

Cotadutide is a lab-made peptide that acts evenly on two hormone receptors, GLP-1 and glucagon. It was a daily shot under the skin.

How it works: 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.

Approval history: 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.

Approves prescription drugs, each for a named use. It also acts against unapproved products, including peptides sold online. Compounding pharmacies, which mix drugs to order, may make some compounds with a prescription. That only applies when the FDA puts the compound in a category of bulk ingredients it allows.

The legal category above is how The Longevity Archive reads U.S. Food and Drug Administration listings for Cotadutide on the reviewed date. It is not a legal opinion. Rules change. Bringing a compound into the country, prescribing it and owning it can each be treated differently. Check with the agency before you act on anything here.

Check FDA directly

Whether Cotadutide is banned in sport is set by the World Anti-Doping Code and by military rules, not by its legal status in the United States. Before you compete or get tested, look up Cotadutide by name on the Prohibited List, or look up a named product in Global DRO. Under the World Anti-Doping Code, category S0 bans, at all times, any drug-like substance that meets two tests. No other section of the List covers it. And no government health regulator anywhere has a current approval for it as a treatment in people. Many substances that are approved somewhere are banned by name in another section. So approval does not mean a substance is allowed in sport.

• WADA Prohibited List
• Global DRO (check a named product)
• USADA (US athletes)
• Operation Supplement Safety (US service members)

The rules you compete or serve under decide this, not this page.