- NHS & GPhC approved UK pharmacy
- Rated Excellent on Trustpilot (7,900+ reviews)
- Tracked, discreet Royal Mail delivery
- Every order pharmacist-checked
Wegovy and Mounjaro are the two biggest names in weight loss right now, but a new once-weekly jab from Boehringer Ingelheim is starting to grab headlines. It’s called Survodutide, and early results suggest it could do more than shift the number on the scales.
Survodutide works on two hormone pathways at once: GLP-1 and glucagon. GLP-1 is the same target as Wegovy, while glucagon acts on the liver and may change how your body uses energy. In clinical trials, it’s helped people lose weight while also cutting the fat stored around their organs and in their liver.
It isn’t licensed in the UK yet, so you can’t get it privately or on the NHS. But with several large trials now reporting, it’s one of the new weight loss injections worth keeping an eye on.
Glucagon is a hormone made by your pancreas. It’s best known as the opposite of insulin. When your blood sugar drops between meals, glucagon tells your liver to release stored sugar to bring your levels back up.
That isn’t all it does. Glucagon also acts on the liver to break down stored fat, and researchers think it may increase the amount of energy your body burns.
Glucagon works by:
Survodutide is designed to mimic oxyntomodulin, a hormone your gut releases after eating that activates both glucagon and GLP-1 receptors. That sets it apart from the weight loss injections already available in the UK. Wegovy targets GLP-1 alone, while Mounjaro targets GLP-1 and another gut hormone called GIP.
Because glucagon normally raises blood sugar, you might expect a glucagon-based medicine to cause problems for people with diabetes. So far, the trials suggest otherwise. In people with type 2 diabetes, Survodutide improved blood sugar control, which researchers think may be linked to the drop in liver fat.
Survodutide is a peptide that works as a dual agonist, which means one molecule switches on two different hormone receptors. Each one targets weight and metabolism in a different way.
Semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic, is a GLP-1 receptor agonist that acts through the same pathway. GLP-1 is a hormone your gut releases after you eat. By copying it, Survodutide:
This is where Survodutide differs from current weight loss injections. By activating glucagon receptors, Survodutide:
The GLP-1 side mainly helps you eat less, while the glucagon side works on how your body handles energy and fat. Boehringer Ingelheim is now running a study comparing Survodutide with semaglutide to test whether it can increase energy expenditure.
This 46-week trial involved 387 adults with overweight or obesity who didn’t have diabetes. The higher the dose, the more weight people lost, with the top dose of 4.8 mg leading to an average weight reduction of 14.9% compared with 2.8% on placebo.
People who reached and stayed on 4.8 mg lost an average of 18.7% of their body weight.
This 76-week phase 3 trial involved 725 adults with obesity or overweight who didn’t have type 2 diabetes. Participants took Survodutide 3.6 mg, Survodutide 6.0 mg, or placebo once weekly.
Weight loss results (accounting for all participants):
For people who stayed on treatment throughout, Survodutide 6.0 mg users lost an average of 16.6%. Someone weighing 100 kg could lose between 13 and 17 kg.
This 76 week trial involved 755 adults with obesity or overweight and type 2 diabetes. People who stayed on Survodutide 6.0 mg lost an average of 13.1% of their body weight, compared with 3.1% on placebo.
That’s lower than in SYNCHRONIZE-1, but people with diabetes tend to lose less weight on any weight loss medicine. Blood sugar control improved too, with up to 29.5% of people bringing their HbA1c back into the normal range, compared with 4.0% on placebo.
This 48-week trial involved 218 adults with obesity or overweight and fatty liver disease. People who stayed on Survodutide 6.0 mg lost 12.2% of their body weight, compared with 1.0% on placebo, and 61.0% brought their liver fat back to a normal level.
Other ongoing trials:
This is the part of the research that’s caught people’s attention. Visceral fat is the fat packed around your organs, deep inside your abdomen, rather than the fat you can pinch. It’s closely linked to type 2 diabetes, heart disease and fatty liver disease, so where you lose fat from matters as much as how much you lose.
In an MRI sub-study of SYNCHRONIZE-1, people taking Survodutide saw:
Researchers also found that the drop in visceral and liver fat didn’t seem to depend on how much weight someone lost overall. That points to the glucagon side of Survodutide acting directly on the liver.
The SYNCHRONIZE-MASLD trial backs this up. In people with fatty liver disease, 84.2% of those taking Survodutide cut their liver fat by at least 30%, compared with 24.3% on placebo. An earlier phase 2 trial in people with MASH found that up to 83% saw their liver disease improve, compared with 18.2% on placebo. And in SYNCHRONIZE-1, no one taking Survodutide went from prediabetes to type 2 diabetes, compared with three people on placebo.
These results are promising, but the MRI sub-study only included 75 people. Larger studies will need to confirm whether these changes lead to fewer health problems in the long run.
Like other weight loss injections, Survodutide can cause side effects, and most of them affect your gut.
Common side effects include:
In SYNCHRONIZE-1, gut side effects affected 80.9% of people on the 3.6 mg dose and 89.7% on the 6.0 mg dose, compared with 47.9% on placebo. Most were mild to moderate and happened while the dose was being increased.
The bigger concern is how many people stopped treatment. Around 1 in 5 people taking Survodutide stopped because of gut side effects in both SYNCHRONIZE-1 (19%) and SYNCHRONIZE-2 (18%). By comparison, around 6-7% of participants stopped taking Cagrisema due to side effects in its main trial.
Boehringer Ingelheim has said the trial rules gave little flexibility to slow down dose increases when people struggled. Newer trials, including SYNCHRONIZE-START, are testing gentler ways to build up the dose, which could make Survodutide easier to stay on.
Because Survodutide is still in clinical trials, its full safety profile isn’t known yet. If it’s approved, it’ll come with detailed prescribing information and monitoring requirements.
Survodutide isn’t available yet, so there are no official prescribing criteria. However, the clinical trials give a good idea of who might be eligible once it’s approved.
Trial participants were adults with:
This is similar to the criteria for current weight management medications. You can check where you sit using our BMI calculator.
We won’t know for certain until it’s licensed. Based on what we know about GLP-1 medications, Survodutide likely won’t be suitable for:
If you take insulin or other diabetes medicines that can cause low blood sugar, you’d need careful monitoring and possibly a change in dose.
The final prescribing guidance will be set by the MHRA if Survodutide is approved for use in the UK.
Survodutide is given as a once-weekly injection under the skin, like Wegovy and Mounjaro.
In the Phase 3 trials, people started on a low dose and increased it gradually until they reached their maintenance dose of either 3.6 mg or 6.0 mg. This slow build-up gives your body time to adjust and helps reduce side effects like nausea and vomiting.
The schedule could change before Survodutide reaches pharmacies. Boehringer Ingelheim is testing gentler ways to increase the dose in SYNCHRONIZE-START, including for people switching from other weight loss injections.
If Survodutide is approved, your prescriber will tell you exactly how to use it and when to increase your dose.
| Medication | Type | Average Weight Loss | Dosing |
| Survodutide 6.0mg | Injection | 13.0% in 76 weeks (16.6% if staying on treatment) | Once weekly |
| CagriSema | Injection | 20.4% in 68 weeks | Once weekly |
| Mounjaro (Tirzepatide 15mg) | Injection | 20.9% in 72 weeks | Once weekly |
| Wegovy (Semaglutide 2.4mg) | Injection | 14.9% in 68 weeks | Once weekly |
Weight loss percentages are based on clinical trial data and may vary between individuals.
These figures come from separate trials with different lengths and participants, so they’re not a direct comparison. Survodutide hasn’t been tested head-to-head against any of these medicines yet, or against newer options in development like retatrutide.
On weight loss alone, Survodutide sits closer to Wegovy than to Mounjaro or CagriSema. Where it could stand out is in its effect on liver fat and visceral fat, which may make it a better fit for people with fatty liver disease or a high risk of metabolic problems. That said, more people stopped Survodutide because of side effects than in the main trials for other weight loss injections.
Until Survodutide is approved, Mounjaro and Wegovy remain the most effective weight loss injections available in the UK. If you’d prefer a daily tablet, Wegovy tablets and Foundayo are also available.
Survodutide isn’t available in the UK. It hasn’t been licensed by the MHRA or any other regulator, and Boehringer Ingelheim hasn’t announced a UK submission.
It has been given fast-track status by regulators in the US and Europe, but that’s for treating MASH, the more advanced form of fatty liver disease, rather than for weight loss. Results from the heart safety trial, SYNCHRONIZE-CVOT, are expected later in 2026.
Before it can be prescribed, Boehringer Ingelheim must submit its trial data to the MHRA and get approval. After that, NICE would need to decide whether it’s cost-effective for NHS use.
Based on typical timelines, Survodutide likely won’t be available in the UK until 2027 at the earliest, and possibly later. If you’re already on a weight loss injection, there’s no need to change your treatment based on these results. Speak to your prescriber if you have any questions about your options.
