Semaglutide mastery course
Unit 3 of 12

Molecular engineering

Native GLP-1 is a poor drug: degraded in minutes and cleared almost as fast. Semaglutide is the product of deliberate m…

How three changes turned GLP-1 into a once-weekly drug

Native GLP-1 is a poor drug: degraded in minutes and cleared almost as fast. Semaglutide is the product of deliberate molecular engineering that fixed both problems while keeping the receptor-activating sequence intact.

This unit walks the three key modifications, a substitution that resists DPP-4, a fatty-acid chain that binds albumin, and the linker that attaches it, then shows what those changes did to the half-life and to oral delivery.

Key terms

The engineered structure


The half-life jump


The oral delivery problem


Albumin as a reservoir


Stability and storage