Was the bimagrumab programme stopped?

The registry shows one withdrawn study with zero enrolment alongside three others completed, active or recruiting.

How should I check a programme's status?

Search the compound on ClinicalTrials.gov rather than relying on a report about one trial. Every registered study returns with its status, phase and enrolment.

Research & Regulatory News

Reading a Programme From Its Trial Registrations

JMWritten & reviewed by Jack Muncaster · Founder, UK PeptidesLast reviewed 2026-08-234 cited sources

Coverage reported that Eli Lilly halted a bimagrumab and tirzepatide trial. The registry shows NCT06901349 as withdrawn with enrolment of zero, while three other bimagrumab trials are completed, active or recruiting — a different picture from a programme being stopped.

Key facts

NCT06901349: Phase 2, WITHDRAWN, n=0
NCT06643728: Phase 2, active not recruiting, n=252
NCT06890611: Phase 1, completed, n=125
NCT05933499: Phase 2, recruiting, n=63
Bimagrumab code: LY3985863
Withdrawn means: Never enrolled anyone

The distinction that changes the meaning

Registries use withdrawn and terminated for different situations. Terminated means a study started, enrolled participants and then stopped. Withdrawn means it never enrolled anyone — the record exists because the study was registered, and it closed before beginning. NCT06901349 is withdrawn with enrolment recorded as zero.

Why that matters for interpretation

A terminated trial can indicate a safety finding or a futility analysis — something was learned from participants and acted on. A withdrawn trial with no enrolment cannot have produced any finding at all, because nobody was ever in it. Whatever the reason, it was not evidence from that study.

Research material referenced

Retatrutide 10mg — third-party HPLC tested

View — £59.99

What the rest of the programme looks like

NCT06643728 is a Phase 2 investigating weight management with bimagrumab and tirzepatide, active and not recruiting with 252 participants. NCT06890611 is a completed Phase 1 with 125. NCT05933499 is recruiting with 63, examining body composition, insulin sensitivity and bone. Three studies at various stages alongside one that never started.

Why the bone endpoint is worth noticing

NCT05933499's registered title includes bone alongside body composition and insulin sensitivity. That reflects the point the fat-free mass literature keeps making — the compartment is not only muscle, and a trial measuring bone separately is treating it as its own question rather than folding it into a lean mass figure.

How to read a programme rather than a headline

Search the compound rather than the news. A registry search returns every registered study with its status, phase and enrolment, which describes what is actually happening more reliably than any single report about one trial. This site has already found a compound whose most-cited trial identifier pointed at an entirely different drug.

Regulatory position

Bimagrumab holds no marketing authorisation for obesity anywhere and is investigational. All the trials described are conducted under clinical supervision with ethics approval. Nothing supplied here is related to bimagrumab or to tirzepatide.

Quick reference

Registration	Phase	Status	Enrolment
NCT06901349	2	Withdrawn	0
NCT06643728	2	Active, not recruiting	252
NCT06890611	1	Completed	125
NCT05933499	2	Recruiting	63

Extended research context

The Research & Regulatory News deep dive

Deep dive: why 2026 was the year the incretin field split in two

For a decade every meaningful GLP-1 medicine was a peptide, and every one of them was injected. 2026 broke that pattern in both directions at once. In August the MHRA authorised orforglipron, a small molecule with no peptide bonds that works as an ordinary daily tablet. Three months earlier, retatrutide's TRIUMPH-1 reported a 28.3% mean weight reduction — the largest figure yet from a single molecule, and achievable only with a peptide capable of engaging three receptors at once. The field is not converging on one answer; it is separating into a convenience track and a magnitude track, and those tracks have different chemistry.

Deep dive: what a marketing authorisation actually means

An authorisation is granted to a specific product, in a specific formulation, for a specific indication, by a specific regulator. It is not a statement about a compound class and it does not transfer. Orforglipron being licensed in the UK tells you nothing about the legal or regulatory status of any other incretin, and nothing at all about compounds that remain investigational. Authorisation is also separate from funding: a licensed medicine is not automatically available on the NHS, which requires a further NICE appraisal.

Deep dive: reading trial results without being misled

Headline percentages are the least transferable part of a trial. A figure is only meaningful alongside its population, its duration, its comparator and its dropout rate. TRIUMPH-1's 28.3% came from an 80-week study in a relatively uncomplicated obesity population; TRIUMPH-3's 22.6% came from adults with severe obesity and established cardiovascular disease, and the gap between those two numbers is mostly population, not potency. Discontinuation rates deserve the same attention as efficacy: 11.3% of the TRIUMPH-1 12 mg arm stopped due to adverse events against 4.9% on placebo, and that figure is routinely dropped from summaries.

Research applications

▸Tracking regulatory status of investigational incretin compounds
▸Understanding the difference between authorisation, NICE appraisal and NHS availability
▸Comparing peptide and non-peptide receptor agonist pharmacology
▸Interpreting Phase 3 topline releases before peer-reviewed publication
▸Verifying trial identity against ClinicalTrials.gov registrations

Handling checklist

✓Check the compound named in a trial registration matches the compound being discussed
✓Confirm the NCT identifier resolves to the acronym being cited
✓Read topline press releases as preliminary until peer-reviewed publication
✓Separate the trial population from the headline percentage before comparing studies
✓Treat authorisation in one jurisdiction as saying nothing about status in another

Common research-handling mistakes

Learnt from thousands of researcher orders across our UK labs.

✗ Treating a positive Phase 3 as approval

Fix: Filing begins a review that commonly takes a year or more and can end in a request for more data.

✗ Comparing weight-reduction percentages across different trials

Fix: Population, duration and comparator differ; the numbers are not interchangeable.

✗ Assuming one incretin's approval legitimises another compound

Fix: Authorisations are product-specific and do not transfer between compounds.

✗ Citing a TRIUMPH number without checking the NCT identifier

Fix: Verify against ClinicalTrials.gov — the numbering has been widely misreported.

✗ Reading research material as an alternative to a licensed medicine

Fix: Research material is supplied for laboratory use only and is not a substitute for anything prescribed.

Continue researching

Peer-reviewed guides, comparators and matched reference materials.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between withdrawn and terminated?: Terminated means a study enrolled participants and then stopped. Withdrawn means it never enrolled anyone at all.
Was the bimagrumab programme stopped?: The registry shows one withdrawn study with zero enrolment alongside three others completed, active or recruiting.
How should I check a programme's status?: Search the compound on ClinicalTrials.gov rather than relying on a report about one trial. Every registered study returns with its status, phase and enrolment.

Primary sources & clinical trials

Peer-reviewed research and registered trials from PubMed, ClinicalTrials.gov, PubChem, FDA and NIH. All links open in a new tab and point to the primary source, so every claim can be verified at origin.

Written and reviewed by

Jack Muncaster · Founder, UK Peptides

Jack founded UK Peptides in Manchester after repeatedly receiving research compounds with missing or recycled paperwork. He is responsible for supplier selection, batch release decisions and the content published in this research library. Every article here is sourced to primary literature and every product page to a signed third-party certificate.

How we write and check this content Report a factual error in this article

More Research & Regulatory News articles

Popular across the research hub

One flagship guide from every other research category — keep exploring.

← Back to Forum