Peptide News Digest

Icotyde Two-Year Psoriasis Data, REMODEL Semaglutide Kidney Trial, Rhode Island Medicaid Drops Weight-Loss GLP-1s

J&J's oral peptide Icotyde holds psoriasis clearance at two years, REMODEL probes how semaglutide protects kidneys, and Rhode Island Medicaid drops coverage.

7 stories · Covering clinical-trials, research, regulatory

Editor's Note

Most of this weekend's verified news came from journals rather than press releases. The full REMODEL paper in Nature Medicine showed that Novo's kidney mechanism trial missed its coprimary MRI endpoints, yet secondary measures pointed to lower blood-vessel resistance and, by the authors' reading, slower kidney scarring, which gives clues to semaglutide's kidney benefit rather than a settled explanation. A Taiwanese analysis of U.S. records found GLP-1 users with type 2 diabetes slightly more likely to need a repeat colonoscopy, an absolute gap of about 2 percentage points that persisted after 2023 guidance on holding the drugs before procedures. On coverage, Rhode Island Medicaid became at least the seventh state program this year to stop paying for the drugs for weight loss. Outside metabolism, J&J's oral peptide Icotyde kept 70% of treated psoriasis patients clear or almost clear at two years, and three lab and mouse studies described a bicyclic peptide screening method, a self-assembling peptide cancer vaccine, and a peptide that reduced seizures in mice.

Clinical Trials

J&J's Oral Peptide Icotyde Keeps 70% of Psoriasis Patients Clear or Almost Clear at Two Years in Phase 3 ICONIC-TOTAL

Johnson & Johnson reported two-year results on Friday, October 2, 2026, at the EADV Congress in Vienna from the Phase 3 ICONIC-TOTAL trial of Icotyde (icotrokinra), a once-daily oral peptide that blocks the IL-23 receptor, in 311 people aged 12 and older with psoriasis on the scalp, genitals, hands, or feet (208 on icotrokinra and 103 on placebo, who switched to the drug at week 16). Among icotrokinra-treated patients, the share with clear or almost clear skin rose from 57% at week 16 to 70% at week 112, and 60% of those with scalp psoriasis, 89% with genital psoriasis, and 63% with hand or foot psoriasis had complete clearance at those sites. Missing data after week 52 were handled with multiple imputation, and J&J reported no new safety signals.

#icotrokinra #icotyde #johnson-johnson #psoriasis #oral-peptide
Research

Full REMODEL Results in Nature Medicine: Semaglutide Missed Its Coprimary Kidney MRI Endpoints but Lowered Renal Artery Resistance

Full results of Novo's REMODEL trial, first presented at the 2026 World Congress of Nephrology, were published in Nature Medicine on Thursday, October 1, 2026. The trial randomized 106 adults with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease to semaglutide 1 mg weekly or placebo for 52 weeks to learn how the drug protects the kidneys. Its coprimary MRI measures of kidney oxygenation, perfusion, and inflammation did not change significantly versus placebo, but semaglutide lowered the renal artery resistive index and kept stable an MRI marker the authors link to scarring, and paired biopsies showed marked effects on the cells lining the kidney's filtering blood vessels, with fewer immune cells nearby. Urine albumin fell 40% in an exploratory analysis; Novo Nordisk funded the trial.

#semaglutide #kidney-disease #type-2-diabetes #novo-nordisk
Research

GLP-1 Users With Type 2 Diabetes More Likely to Need a Repeat Colonoscopy Within a Year, TriNetX Study Finds

A retrospective study from Taipei Medical University, published in BMC Gastroenterology on Saturday, October 3, 2026, used the U.S. TriNetX health records network to compare 4,870 adults with type 2 diabetes who had a GLP-1 receptor agonist prescription in the three months before a colonoscopy with 4,870 matched adults who did not. Within 12 months, 11.0% of GLP-1 users had a repeat colonoscopy versus 8.9% of nonusers (hazard ratio 1.37), and the gap was similar after June 2023 society guidance on holding the drugs before procedures. The authors used a repeat colonoscopy as a stand-in for poor bowel preparation, which the study did not measure directly, and described the absolute difference as modest.

#glp-1 #colonoscopy #type-2-diabetes #real-world-evidence
Regulatory

Rhode Island Medicaid Stops Covering Wegovy, Zepbound, and Saxenda for Weight Loss, at Least the Seventh State to Cut Coverage in 2026

As of Thursday, October 1, 2026, Rhode Island Medicaid no longer covers GLP-1 drugs such as Wegovy, Zepbound, and Saxenda when they are prescribed for weight loss, Rhode Island Current reported; the drugs remain covered for other conditions such as type 2 diabetes. The program paid for 24,971 GLP-1 prescriptions for obesity in fiscal year 2025, and state officials estimated the change would save $6.3 million in state general revenue and $20.3 million in combined state and federal funds. California, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, and Massachusetts also ended or did not renew Medicaid obesity coverage this year.

#medicaid #obesity-coverage #wegovy #zepbound
Research

Texas A&M Chemists Report PReP-Bicyc, a Phage-Compatible Method for Bicyclic Peptide Libraries That Yielded PD-1 Binders

Researchers led by Wenshe Ray Liu at Texas A&M University described in Nature Communications on Saturday, October 3, 2026 a method called PReP-Bicyc that closes phage-displayed peptides into two rings with a designed linker, which reacts first with a cysteine at the peptide's start and then with two internal cysteines, under mild conditions that keep the phages viable. Screening a library made this way against the immune checkpoint protein PD-1 produced bicyclic peptides with binding affinities below 1 micromolar (best about 400 nM) that selectively labeled PD-1-expressing cells and blocked the PD-1/PD-L1 interaction. The reported results come from laboratory experiments.

#bicyclic-peptide #phage-display #cyclic-peptide #pd-1
Research

University of Hong Kong's Self-Assembling Peptide-Adjuvant Cancer Vaccine Slows Tumors in Mouse Models

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong and BayVax Biotech reported in Advanced Science on Friday, October 2, 2026 a vaccine platform called SaPAC that chemically links neoantigen peptides to the TLR7-activating adjuvant 1V209, so the conjugates assemble into nanoparticles of about 100 to 200 nm. In mice, the particles reached lymph nodes better than peptide nanoparticles mixed with free adjuvant, and SaPAC alone slowed tumor growth in melanoma and bladder cancer models. In a triple-negative breast cancer model, combining multivalent SaPAC with anti-PD-1 therapy gave durable tumor suppression comparable to a Poly(I:C)-adjuvanted benchmark without detectable systemic toxicity; all results come from mice.

#peptide-vaccine #cancer-vaccine #neoantigen #preclinical
Research

Apoptin-Derived Peptide B9 Cuts Seizure Susceptibility and Improves Memory in Mouse Models of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Researchers at Harbin Medical University reported in CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics, published online October 1, 2026, that B9, a peptide derived from the viral protein apoptin, lowered seizure susceptibility, reduced epileptiform activity on EEG, and improved spatial learning and memory in mouse models of acute seizures and kainic acid-induced temporal lobe epilepsy. The team traced the effect to B9 suppressing the heat shock protein HSPA1A and freeing the protein AP2B1, which preserved the glutamate receptor subunit GluA2 and limited calcium overload in neurons; knocking down AP2B1 erased B9's benefits. The findings come from mice only.

#epilepsy #neurology #preclinical