Source methodology
Sources and References
Every primary source cited across this site, and the hierarchy we use to decide what counts as verified.
All sources retrieved: 24 October 2026
Next review: 24 January 2027
The evidence hierarchy we apply
Not all sources carry equal weight. We rank them, label which tier a claim comes from, and never present a lower tier as though it were a higher one.
| Tier | Source type | How we treat it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peer-reviewed publication | Strongest. Independently reviewed, citable with a DOI. Labelled Peer-reviewed |
| 2 | Trial registry record | Design, population and endpoints filed before results are known. Cited by NCT identifier. |
| 3 | Sponsor announcement | Accurate on headline figures but not independently reviewed. Labelled Sponsor announcement |
| 4 | Official regulatory source | Authoritative for regulatory status within its jurisdiction. |
| 5 | Trade and specialist press | Used only where no primary record could be retrieved, and explicitly labelled as secondary. |
| — | Vendor and commercial sites | Not cited as evidence. Sites selling the substance have a direct interest in the claims they make about it. |
Primary sources — developer announcements
- Eli Lilly and Company. Lilly's triple agonist, retatrutide, delivered weight loss of up to an average of 71.2 lbs along with substantial relief from osteoarthritis pain in first successful Phase 3 trial. 11 December 2025. TRIUMPH-4 topline results. investor.lilly.com
- Eli Lilly and Company. Lilly's triple agonist, retatrutide, delivered powerful weight loss in pivotal Phase 3 obesity trial. 21 May 2026. TRIUMPH-1 topline results, including the statement that retatrutide “is legally available only to participants in Lilly's clinical trials”. investor.lilly.com
- Eli Lilly and Company. Lilly's triple agonist, retatrutide, successful in two additional Phase 3 obesity trials, delivering significant improvements in weight and A1C. 23 July 2026. TRIUMPH-2 and TRIUMPH-3 topline results, cardiovascular event analyses, the Q1 2027 BLA plan, and the statement that retatrutide “cannot be legally sold or marketed for human use”. investor.lilly.com
- Eli Lilly and Company. Lilly's phase 2 retatrutide results published in The New England Journal of Medicine show the investigational molecule achieved up to 17.5% mean weight reduction at 24 weeks. 26 June 2023. investor.lilly.com
- Eli Lilly and Company. Research and development pipeline. lilly.com
Primary sources — trial registries
- ClinicalTrials.gov, US National Library of Medicine. clinicaltrials.gov. All 33 registered retatrutide records were retrieved via the public API v2 on 24 October 2026. Records cited individually by NCT identifier throughout the site, including: NCT03841630 (first-in-human), NCT04867785 and NCT04881760 (Phase 2), NCT05882045 (TRIUMPH-3), NCT05929066 (TRIUMPH-1), NCT05929079 (TRIUMPH-2), NCT05931367 (TRIUMPH-4), NCT06260722 (vs semaglutide), NCT06297603 (TRANSCEND-T2D-3), NCT06354660 (TRANSCEND-T2D-1), NCT06383390 (TRIUMPH-Outcomes), NCT06662383 (TRIUMPH-5), NCT06859268 (TRIUMPH-6), NCT07035093 (TRIUMPH-7), NCT07165028 (MASLD/MASH master protocol), NCT07232719 (TRIUMPH-8), NCT07357415 (TRIUMPH-9), NCT07629401 (expanded access).
- Clinical Trials Registry – India (CTRI), ICMR National Institute of Medical Statistics. ctri.nic.in
Primary sources — peer-reviewed literature
- Jastreboff AM, et al. Retatrutide, a Triple Hormone Receptor Agonist, for Treatment of Obesity. New England Journal of Medicine. Published 29 September 2026. DOI 10.1056/NEJMoa2604169
- Jastreboff AM, et al. Triple–Hormone-Receptor Agonist Retatrutide for Obesity — A Phase 2 Trial. New England Journal of Medicine. 2023. DOI 10.1056/NEJMoa2301972
- Rosenstock J, et al. Phase 2 retatrutide in type 2 diabetes. The Lancet. 2023. Citation pending verification — we have not confirmed volume, page range and DOI from a primary record. Until we do, the site cites the registry entry (NCT04867785) and describes the trial design only, without quoting effect sizes from this paper.
Primary sources — regulatory authorities
- Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), India. cdsco.gov.in
- Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India. cdsco.mohfw.gov.in
- Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP), United Arab Emirates. mohap.gov.ae
- Emirates Drug Establishment (EDE), United Arab Emirates. ede.gov.ae
- US Food and Drug Administration. fda.gov
Secondary sources, labelled as such
- Indian pharmaceutical trade press reporting (2024–2025) on CDSCO Subject Expert Committee recommendations concerning a Phase III retatrutide protocol and a subsequent protocol amendment. Secondary — cited on the India page only, explicitly labelled, because we could not retrieve the underlying committee minutes.
- Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine, ADA 2026 conference coverage. Secondary
Research tooling
- Google Suggest (autocomplete) endpoint, queried with country parameters for India and the UAE on 24 October 2026, to identify genuine reader questions. Used to inform which questions this site answers — never as a source for any factual claim.
What is deliberately absent from this list
No vendor, peptide supplier, clinic marketing page or affiliate site is cited anywhere on this site as evidence. Many rank well for retatrutide queries. They also have a direct commercial interest in the claims they make about a molecule that cannot lawfully be sold, which disqualifies them as sources for anything we publish as fact.
Corrections
If a figure on this site does not match its cited source, we want to know. Tell us the page, the figure and the source, and we will check it. Where we got something wrong, we correct it and note what changed. Contact the editorial team → · Editorial policy →