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Albumin binding

Albumin is a protein that floats in your blood. Some peptide medicines are built with a small fatty tail so they stick loosely to albumin, which shields them and makes them leave the body more slowly. This is one way makers give a drug a longer half-life.

For experts

Semaglutide is extensively bound to plasma albumin (over 99%); the labelling states that albumin binding is the principal protraction mechanism, decreasing renal clearance and protecting against metabolic degradation, alongside stabilisation against DPP-4. Liraglutide is likewise an acylated GLP-1 analogue that binds serum albumin, and the fatty acid moiety and linker chemistry were central to the design of semaglutide.

Sources (2)

  1. 01OZEMPIC (semaglutide) injection, solution - FDA-approved prescribing informationU.S. National Library of Medicine, DailyMed · 2026-06-10 · accessed 2026-09-29
  2. 02Discovery of the Once-Weekly Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) Analogue SemaglutideJournal of Medicinal Chemistry (indexed in PubMed, NCBI/NLM) · 2015-09-24 · accessed 2026-09-29