Peptide News Digest

Wegovy Pill Lifts Novo's Outlook, UK Watchdog Rules Against Weight-Loss Pill Ads, Ex-NRL Player Charged Over Peptide Lab

Wegovy pill sales lift Novo's 2026 outlook, the UK's ad watchdog rules against four pill ads, and an ex-NRL player is charged over a peptide lab.

12 stories · Covering industry, regulatory, research

Editor's Note

Novo Nordisk sold 5.4 billion kroner of the Wegovy pill in the third quarter, less than a year after its January launch, and raised its 2026 outlook again. In the UK the same pill has become a marketing problem: the Advertising Standards Authority ruled that Juniper, MedExpress, and Voy advertised it to the public through pill imagery and click-through pages, which UK rules bar for prescription-only medicines. The gray market showed up in three places. The Washington Poison Center's GLP-1 calls doubled, including people injecting retatrutide they mixed themselves; a UC San Diego survey found nearly half of current users in an online sample had bought from individual sellers or personal contacts; and New South Wales police charged a former NRL player over an alleged peptide lab they found with the TGA's help. Two observational studies linked GLP-1 drugs to fewer obesity-related cancers and fewer alcohol-related hospital visits than other diabetes drugs, and a Birmingham lab study found semaglutide did not directly shrink human muscle cells. Outside obesity, Genentech set a stability target for oral macrocyclic peptides, and two antimicrobial peptide studies redesigned known peptides to balance potency against toxicity.

Industry

Novo Nordisk Raises Its 2026 Outlook Again as Wegovy Pill Sales Reach 5.4 Billion Kroner in the Third Quarter

Novo Nordisk reported third-quarter Wegovy pill sales of 5.4 billion Danish kroner (about $811 million), above the roughly 4.5 billion analysts expected, CNBC reported on November 4. Total sales rose 4% at constant exchange rates to 79.2 billion kroner, and Novo now expects 2026 adjusted sales and operating profit growth of -2% to +2%, up from a range of -6% to flat; the company said the pill is now sold in eight countries. CFO Karsten Munk Knudsen will leave at the end of 2026 after 27 years, to be replaced by Galderma's Luigi La Corte, and CEO Mike Doustdar said "turnaround and recovery is not done based on one data point."

#novo-nordisk #oral-semaglutide #wegovy
Regulatory

UK Advertising Watchdog Rules Juniper, MedExpress, and Voy Ads Promoted the Prescription-Only Wegovy Pill Without Naming It

The Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints on November 4 against four ads it said promoted the oral Wegovy tablet, a prescription-only medicine licensed in the UK in June 2026: a Juniper YouTube ad ("The weight loss pill is here"), a MedExpress Instagram story ("New weight loss tablets", "No needles"), and a Voy video-on-demand ad and bus-side poster ("The weight is over") that Voy said were for a glucomannan supplement. The ASA found that pill imagery, timing soon after the launch, and click-through pages naming Wegovy or Mounjaro amounted to advertising a prescription medicine to the public, breaching CAP Code rule 12.12, and told all three companies not to do it again.

#uk #mhra #oral-semaglutide #telehealth
Regulatory

Former NRL Player Trent Merrin Charged Over an Alleged Clandestine Peptide Lab Found in Shell Cove, New South Wales

Former St George Illawarra Dragons and State of Origin player Trent Merrin, 37, was charged on Tuesday, November 3, with four counts of manufacturing goods for use in humans resulting in harm or injury and one count of participating in a criminal group, ABC News reported. The charges follow a July 24 raid in which an Organised Crime Squad strike force working with the Therapeutic Goods Administration allegedly found a clandestine peptide manufacturing facility and large quantities of restricted substances; a 39-year-old man charged in August has had his case finalised. Merrin's solicitor said he will plead not guilty, and he is due in Wollongong Local Court on November 24.

#australia #tga #gray-market
Regulatory

Washington Poison Center Calls Involving GLP-1 Drugs Doubled to 543 in the First Nine Months of 2026

The Washington Poison Center took 543 calls involving GLP-1 drugs from January through September 2026, up from 272 in the same period of 2025, KIRO 7 reported. The center's Jimmy Leonard said medication errors are the most common reason, including tenfold overdoses such as taking 2.5 mg instead of 0.25 mg, and warned that retatrutide sold online as a research chemical may be contaminated. One woman who lost insurance coverage for Zepbound bought retatrutide online for about $200, mixed the powder herself, and likely doubled her dose, leaving her with heavy sweating, nausea, and a racing heart.

#retatrutide #gray-market #poison-control
Research

UT Southwestern: Starting a GLP-1 Drug Linked to Fewer Obesity-Related Cancers Than Insulin or Sulfonylureas, Mainly in Milder Type 2 Diabetes

Using UT Southwestern health records from 2010 to July 2025, researchers emulated five target trials comparing adults with type 2 diabetes who started a GLP-1 drug with those who started another glucose-lowering drug, reporting in JAMA Network Open on November 3. Starting a GLP-1 drug was linked to a lower three-year risk of obesity-related cancer than insulin (hazard ratio 0.62) or sulfonylureas (0.67), mainly among patients with low diabetes severity; comparisons with metformin, DPP-4 inhibitors, and SGLT2 inhibitors showed no consistent difference. The study is observational, and the authors said the findings do not justify choosing a diabetes drug for cancer prevention.

#cancer #glp-1 #type-2-diabetes
Research

UC San Diego Survey: 45.8% of GLP-1 Users in an Online Sample Bought From Individual Sellers or Personal Contacts

In a November 2024 survey of 242 current, past, or prospective GLP-1 users recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk, 45.8% of current users (65 people) reported buying from high-risk sources such as individual online sellers or personal contacts, and 51.7% of all participants said social media shaped their views of the drugs, UC San Diego researchers reported in PLOS One. In a choice exercise with mock social media posts, participants favored posts showing branded semaglutide in its packaging and sold by an accredited online pharmacy, and marked down posts with "no prescription required" captions or celebrity endorsements. The sample was 72.7% male and young, and eligibility was self-reported.

#gray-market #semaglutide #glp-1
Research

Penn Study: Semaglutide and Tirzepatide Tied to Fewer Alcohol Use Disorder Hospital and ER Visits Than SGLT2 Inhibitors in Type 2 Diabetes

University of Pennsylvania researchers used TriNetX health records from June 2022 to January 2025 to compare adults with type 2 diabetes who started semaglutide, tirzepatide, or an SGLT2 inhibitor, reporting in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. Over roughly 10 to 12 months of follow-up, hospitalizations or emergency visits for alcohol use disorder occurred at 2.42 versus 4.53 per 1,000 person-years for semaglutide versus SGLT2 inhibitors (hazard ratio 0.54) and 2.34 versus 3.98 for tirzepatide (0.61), with no difference between the two GLP-1 drugs (0.98). The study is observational.

#semaglutide #tirzepatide #alcohol-use-disorder #type-2-diabetes
Research

University of Birmingham Lab Study: Semaglutide and GIP Did Not Directly Shrink Human Muscle Cells

Birmingham researchers grew muscle cells from older adults with obesity who were having orthopedic surgery and treated them with semaglutide or GIP peptide, reporting in GeroScience. Neither changed atrophy-related genes, the proteins the cells released, myotube thickness, or differentiation; semaglutide modestly lowered glycolytic ATP production, and GIP thickened myotubes after eight days. The cells carried GIP receptor mRNA but little GLP-1 receptor, and the authors say the results fit an indirect cause for lean mass loss on these drugs; the work was done in cultured cells only.

#semaglutide #gip
Industry

Celltrion Shows Rat Data for CT-G32, a Four-Hormone Obesity Candidate It Says Beat Retatrutide at the Same Dose

Celltrion presented preclinical data at TIDES Europe in Amsterdam for CT-G32/SCO-940, developed with Japan's Scohia Pharma, which acts on GLP-1, GIP, glucagon, and amylin receptors, the Korea Herald reported on November 4. In diet-induced obese rats it produced more weight loss than retatrutide at the same dose, with less lean mass lost relative to total weight lost, though the company released no figures. Exposure data in primates support possible once-weekly dosing, and Celltrion plans to file an investigational new drug application with the FDA by February 2027.

#celltrion #amylin #retatrutide
Research

Aix-Marseille Team Finds Swapping Charged Residues Retunes the Lynronne Antimicrobial Peptides Toward E. coli or Gram-Positive Bacteria

Researchers at Aix-Marseille University and the French armed forces biomedical research institute (IRBA) made versions of the Lynronne antimicrobial peptides in which every positively charged residue was histidine, lysine, or arginine, reporting in the Journal of Peptide Science. All-histidine versions were inactive, all-lysine versions were most potent against Gram-negative bacteria, especially E. coli, and all-arginine versions were more active against Gram-positive bacteria and more stable in salt or serum but damaged more red blood cells. Lynronne-3 and its all-lysine variant were best at preventing and clearing biofilms; the work was in lab tests only.

#antimicrobial-peptides #e-coli
Research

China Agricultural University Fuses Part of LL-37 With Thymopentin, Making a Less Toxic Peptide That Neutralizes Bacterial Endotoxin

Researchers fused residues 13 to 36 of the human antimicrobial peptide LL-37 with thymopentin (TP5), a five-amino-acid immune peptide, and produced the hybrid in Pichia pastoris yeast at about 20.5 mg per liter and 95.2% purity, reporting in Frontiers in Pharmacology. LL37-TP5 killed Gram-negative and Gram-positive poultry pathogens at low concentrations, neutralized bacterial endotoxin, cut nitric oxide, IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-1β in stimulated mouse macrophages, and was less toxic to cells and red blood cells than LL-37. The tests were in the lab, with poultry farming as the intended use.

#antimicrobial-peptides #thymopentin #poultry
Research

Genentech Rat Study Sets a Stability Target for Oral Macrocyclic Peptides Given With the Absorption Enhancer Sodium Decanoate

Genentech scientists dosed two series of closely related macrocyclic peptides, which differed mainly in how quickly pancreatic enzymes broke them down, directly into rats' small intestines with and without sodium decanoate (C10), reporting in Molecular Pharmaceutics. C10 protected all the peptides from pancreatic enzymes in a concentration-dependent way in lab tests and raised their absolute bioavailability in rats, and a half-life of about 60 minutes in a pancreatin stability test without C10 was enough for maximal absorption with the enhancer.

#genentech #oral-peptides #macrocyclic-peptides #drug-delivery

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