A GLP-1 drug list catalogs medicines that imitate a hormone the gut releases after a meal. Each entry has four parts worth reading: the molecule, the brand it is sold under, the receptor or receptors it activates, and the use FDA approved it for. Those four fields explain almost every apparent contradiction in the class.
Reviewed by Dr. Julie Taylor, MD, MPH
What GLP-1 means before it means a drug
Glucagon-like peptide-1 is a hormone secreted by cells in the intestine in response to food. It prompts insulin release when blood glucose is elevated, suppresses glucagon, slows the rate at which the stomach empties, and acts on appetite centers in the brain. The natural hormone breaks down within minutes, which made it useless as a medicine in its own right.
The drugs in this class are engineered to survive far longer while still binding the same receptor. That single engineering problem, extending the half-life, is what separates a twice-daily product from a once-weekly one and explains why the class arrived in stages over two decades.
Molecule and brand are separate fields
A molecule is the active substance. A brand is a commercial package of that substance approved for one specific purpose. The same molecule can hold two brands because each was submitted and reviewed separately, with its own trials and its own dosing range.
This is why a list of eight brands is not a list of eight drugs. Read the molecule column first and the catalog shrinks by roughly half.
| Molecule | Brand name | Receptors activated | FDA-approved purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exenatide | Byetta | GLP-1 | Lowering blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes |
| Liraglutide | Victoza | GLP-1 | Lowering blood sugar in type 2 diabetes and cutting cardiovascular event risk in that group |
| Liraglutide | Saxenda | GLP-1 | Long-term reduction of excess body weight, including eligible patients aged 12 and older |
| Dulaglutide | Trulicity | GLP-1 | Lowering blood sugar in type 2 diabetes and cutting cardiovascular event risk |
| Semaglutide | Ozempic | GLP-1 | Type 2 diabetes, with additional cardiovascular and kidney outcome uses |
| Semaglutide | Wegovy | GLP-1 | Long-term weight reduction, cardiovascular risk reduction, and MASH with moderate to advanced fibrosis |
| Tirzepatide | Mounjaro | GIP and GLP-1 | Lowering blood sugar in type 2 diabetes, from age 10 upward |
| Tirzepatide | Zepbound | GIP and GLP-1 | Long-term weight reduction and moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea in adults with obesity |
Indication is the field that governs the rest
An indication is the condition a regulator agreed the product treats, based on evidence the manufacturer submitted. It is not a suggestion about who might benefit. It determines what the manufacturer may advertise, how insurers assess a claim, and which trials sit behind the product.
Two rows sharing a molecule but carrying different indications behave like different products in every practical sense. One is filled easily for a person with type 2 diabetes and rejected for a person seeking weight treatment, and the other reverses that outcome. Nothing about the chemistry causes this. The approved wording does.
Single agonist and dual agonist
An agonist is a substance that switches on a receptor. Most drugs on the list are single agonists: they engage the GLP-1 receptor only. Tirzepatide is a dual agonist, engaging both the GLP-1 receptor and the receptor for glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide, a second incretin hormone described in the pharmacology literature from its earliest development work as a deliberate design choice rather than an accident.
Larger average weight reductions have been reported in tirzepatide obesity trials than in semaglutide obesity trials, though those were separate studies and the comparison across them indicates direction rather than a precise margin. Reviews of incretin pharmacology still treat the exact contribution of GIP activity as unsettled.
Three statuses, not one
Any name attached to this class holds one of three positions. Approved products have completed FDA review and carry a label. Investigational agents, currently including orforglipron, retatrutide, survodutide, and CagriSema, are in trials and cannot be prescribed regardless of how promising their published results appear. Compounded preparations are made by pharmacies, are not FDA-approved, and have not been assessed for safety, efficacy, or manufacturing quality.
Price is usually what pushes people across that third line. Brand list prices run into four figures a month before insurance, and coverage for weight indications is inconsistent, so cash programs became a parallel market. Ro, Hims and Hers, and LifeMD each publish program pricing, and physician-supervised services such as FormBlends list a flat monthly cash figure for compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide. Reading that price next to a brand price is not a straight comparison, because the two sides of it hold different regulatory status.
Titration means the label dose is not the starting dose
Every injectable product in the class begins below its target dose and increases in steps over months, a schedule designed to limit nausea, vomiting, and other gastrointestinal effects that concentrate during escalation. A person four weeks into treatment is on a dose no efficacy figure was ever attached to.
This is why lists that quote a single milligram number are close to meaningless. The number is a maintenance target reached after a schedule, and plenty of people settle below it for reasons of tolerance or cost.
Reading any list you come across
Check the molecule column for duplicates. Check whether the indication column says diabetes or weight, since a list that omits it is hiding the field that matters most. Check whether any entry is investigational. Check whether compounded products have been mixed in with approved ones without a status marker. A list that survives those four checks is usable. Most published ones do not.
The same scrutiny applies to the cash storefronts, since most of them publish a list of their own. Ro, Hims and Hers, and HealthRX each post GLP-1 medications with a monthly price attached, and the fields worth checking are identical: which molecule, whether it is brand or compounded, and whether a prescriber reviews the order. A storefront that answers those plainly is easier to judge than one that leads with a headline number.
Frequently asked questions
Is a GLP-1 drug a hormone?
It is a manufactured peptide designed to act like one. The natural hormone lasts a couple of minutes in circulation, so these molecules are modified to resist breakdown and remain active for days. The receptor they bind is the same one the body’s own hormone uses.
Why did older products need daily or twice-daily injection?
Earlier molecules cleared from the body faster. Exenatide is dosed twice daily before meals and liraglutide once daily, while structural changes in semaglutide and tirzepatide extended activity enough for weekly dosing. That difference is engineering, not potency.
What does off-label mean here?
It means prescribing a product for a condition not listed on its approved label, which is lawful for a prescriber but changes the coverage position and removes the specific evidence package that supported the approved use. It was common during periods when weight-labeled products were in short supply.
Do these drugs cure anything?
No. They treat conditions that current guidelines describe as chronic, and effects diminish after discontinuation. Clinical obesity is defined in recent international work as a chronic condition with organ dysfunction, which is the framing that makes long-term treatment rather than a fixed course the expected pattern.
