Origins
When was retatrutide created?
Retatrutide is the newest compound in this catalogue by a wide margin. It was first described in 2022 and has never been approved as a medicine anywhere.
The short answer
| Date | First described 2022 |
| Who | Eli Lilly |
| Where | Indianapolis, United States |
| Origin | Designed, not found — it does not occur naturally in this form. |
Where it came from
It follows tirzepatide’s logic one step further: where tirzepatide is one chain addressing two receptors, retatrutide is one chain addressing three — GIP, GLP-1 and glucagon. Adding the third is not simply a matter of more binding sites; the design has to balance activity at all three, since the ratios between them are what distinguish one triple agonist from another.
It carried the code LY3437943 through development. The first descriptions appear in 2022, the phase 2 results that made it widely discussed were published in 2023, and Lilly began reporting its phase 3 (TRIUMPH) results in May 2026.
That recency is the important fact about it. Compounds on this page have had thirty, fifty, a hundred years of independent examination. Retatrutide has had a handful of years, and Lilly has said it plans to file for US approval in 2027.
Why it is called that
The -tide ending again. Retatrutide is an international nonproprietary name assigned during development, not a trade name — there is no approved product to carry one.
Where it stands now
Retatrutide has not been approved as a medicine in any country, including New Zealand. It remains an investigational compound.
What this page does not say
Nothing above is a statement about what Retatrutide does in a body, and none of it is guidance on use. A compound’s history is a record of laboratories and dates; it is not evidence for anything, and the fact that a programme was looking for something is not a finding that it was found.
More on Retatrutide
- Retatrutide — prices and sizes
- Buying Retatrutide in New Zealand
- What is Retatrutide?
- The Retatrutide certificate of analysis
What is Retatrutide? · The full timeline · Retatrutide — sizes and prices
