Can retatrutide be taken orally?

Oral Semaglutide tablets Approved

Recently, Novo Nordisk announced that the European Commission approved the marketing of oral Semaglutide tablets to improve the blood sugar level of patients with type 2 diabetes in combination with diet and exercise.

Semaglutide tablets are the first and currently the only oral glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist. In September last year, Somaglutide tablet was approved by the US FDA to improve the blood sugar control of adult patients with type 2 diabetes in combination with diet control and exercise.

From injection to oral administration, it's far more complicated than you think

From a convenient perspective, oral medication is the preferred medication method for patients. But oral medications are usually small molecules and require a certain degree of hydrophobicity.

Generally speaking, the absorption of small molecule drugs mainly occurs in the intestine. However, the absorption of peptide drugs in the intestine will face significant challenges, as multiple peptidases present in the intestine can degrade peptides before they are absorbed.

Can retatrutide be taken orally?

Unfortunately, there is currently no oral retatrutide peptide available.

The oral Semaglutide is the addition of a small molecule absorption enhancer called SNAC, which allows Semaglutide to be directly absorbed in the stomach.

At the same time, the dissolution of SNAC in the stomach can locally increase the pH value of the environment, increase the solubility of Semaglutide, and prevent its degradation by peptidases in the stomach.

But for retatrutide peptide, we cannt find the "SNAC" to allow retatrutide be directly absorbed in the stomach.