{"slug":"cortagen","seoKey":"cortagen","displayName":"Cortagen","codes":[],"synonyms":["Ala-Glu-Asp-Pro","AEDP","H-Ala-Glu-Asp-Pro-OH","L-Ala-L-Glu-L-Asp-L-Pro (the spelling of patent US 7,189,701 B1)","L-alanyl-L-glutamyl-L-aspartyl-L-proline","alanyl-glutamyl-aspartylprolyine (the NLM MeSH supplementary concept heading, UID 67431545)","Kortagen / Кортаген (Russian transliteration)","Korthagen (spelling used in PMC9323678)","Cortagene (spelling used in PMID 19432169)"],"legalClass":"research_chemical","identifiers":{"cas":"335591-03-2","pubchemCid":18439621,"inchikey":"PLTRIMAUDDQYRV-NAKRPEOUSA-N","wikidataQid":"Q137538173","formula":"C17H26N4O9","molecularWeight":430.4,"sequence":"Ala-Glu-Asp-Pro"},"approvals":[{"market":"US","status":"not_approved","note":"Not approved and not registered as a substance. Four federal queries returned no match on 2026-09-15: no drug label, no adverse event report, no entry in the labelling database with its stated data cut-off of 2026-09-14, and no record in the substance registration system, which is why there is no unique ingredient identifier. Control queries on each of those interfaces returned results for an approved medicine, so the negative findings are verified rather than interface failures. The substance also appears in none of the three categories of the list of bulk substances nominated for pharmacy compounding, whose full text was downloaded and searched for the trade name, the sequence and the abbreviation; it was never even nominated for review, while the adjacent dipeptide alanyl-glutamine sits in category 1. Distribution runs through the research-chemical channel with an explicit research-use-only label, and no marketing as a dietary supplement was found.","source":"https://api.fda.gov/drug/label.json?search=openfda.substance_name:%22cortagen%22"},{"market":"EU","status":"not_approved","note":"No centralised marketing authorisation, no assessment report, no withdrawal document and no pharmacopoeial monograph. The register itself could not be evaluated on 2026-09-15: the search page for this substance and a control search for an approved active ingredient both returned the JavaScript shell of the page at almost identical sizes, without any server-rendered results. The negative finding therefore rests on the complete absence of the substance from every other authority database that could be checked and on the absence of any registered clinical trial, not on a primary regulator document. Separately from medicines law, no food status can be derived for it either: unlike the neighbouring peptides of its series it exists as no oral product anywhere, and a synthetic tetrapeptide without documented consumption in the Union before 15 May 1997 falls under the novel food rules.","source":"https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines"},{"market":"DE","status":"not_approved","note":"Neither a national nor a European marketing authorisation exists, so the injected preparation is not a marketable medicinal product and may not be imported or dispensed, and it is not marketable as a food either. The substance is also not named in the schedule to the anti-doping act: its full text was checked on 2026-09-15 for the trade name, the sequence and the abbreviation without a hit. The schedule's section on peptide hormones, growth factors, related substances and mimetics lists what it covers by name, from erythropoiesis-stimulating substances through growth hormone fragments to releasing hormones and secretagogues, and a tetrapeptide without hormone action falls under none of those headings; there is no catch-all position for peptides. A listed substance was found in the same text as a control. Sporting rules are unaffected by that.","source":"https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/antidopg/anlage.html"},{"market":"UK","status":"not_approved","note":"No marketing authorisation known. The product register could not be evaluated on 2026-09-15: the search for this substance and a control search for an approved active ingredient returned responses of an identical size, that is the JavaScript shell of the page without any server-rendered results. This is recorded as an unverified gap rather than as a confirmed negative finding, and it rests on the absence of any entry elsewhere and on the absence of any clinical development.","source":"https://products.mhra.gov.uk/search/?search=cortagen"},{"market":"AU","status":"not_approved","note":"Not named in the Poisons Standard; the full text of the 2026 instrument was searched on 2026-09-15 for the trade name, the transliteration, the sequence and the abbreviation without a hit, while a control term in the same document was found. There is no generic peptide position in that instrument, and the peptides it does schedule are listed by name, so this is a real absence. Absence of a listing is not a clearance: an unlisted substance with a therapeutic purpose falls under the rules for unregistered therapeutic goods, and unapproved research peptides are treated in practice much like prescription-only substances. The register of therapeutic goods itself was not reachable on that date.","source":"https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2026L00633/asmade"},{"market":"CA","status":"not_approved","note":"No marketing authorisation and no entry in the drug product database; the query returned an empty result on 2026-09-15, while a control query for an authorised product returned six records with its identification number, so the interface was working and the negative finding is verified.","source":"https://health-products.canada.ca/api/drug/drugproduct/?lang=en&type=json&brandname=cortagen"},{"market":"CH","status":"not_approved","note":"No marketing authorisation known. No direct register query was possible on 2026-09-15, the site returning only its entry page without a usable search function. Since the substance is held as a medicine in none of the registers checked worldwide and no registered clinical trial exists, a Swiss-only authorisation would be extraordinarily unlikely, but it is not positively ruled out.","source":"https://www.swissmedicinfo.ch/"}],"devStage":"preclinical","strongestEvidence":"animal","wada":{"status":"prohibited","section":"S0","listYear":2026,"source":"https://www.wada-ama.org/en/prohibited-list"},"trials":[],"sameAs":["https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/18439621","https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q137538173"],"lastVerified":"2026-09-15","version":"1.0","published":true,"locale":"en","title":"Cortagen: what the studies show, status and safety","summary":"Cortagen is a synthetic chain of four amino acids from a St Petersburg institute. No trial in people has ever been registered, and the only account of people taking it sits in a patent. In its makers' own head-to-head tests it usually came last. It is the one peptide of that series sold as no product at all.","updated":"2026-09-15","url":"https://mypep.app/peptides/cortagen"}