From the first hormone in 1902 to today's GLP-1 medicines, peptides went from a lab curiosity to some of the most important treatments in the world. Here is how it happened.
Proteins are long chains of amino acids; peptides are short ones, usually under about 50. Many of the body's signals, like insulin, GLP-1 and oxytocin, are peptides. Because they fit their receptors precisely, peptide medicines can be very targeted.
In London, William Bayliss and Ernest Starling discover secretin, a small peptide that tells the pancreas to release digestive juices. It is the first hormone ever identified, and the word “hormone” is coined soon after.
At the University of Toronto, Frederick Banting and Charles Best, working with John Macleod and James Collip, extract insulin, the peptide hormone that controls blood sugar.
In January 1922, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson becomes the first person treated with insulin. Type 1 diabetes goes from a death sentence to a manageable condition.
Eli Lilly and Company begins producing insulin at scale in the United States, and Banting and Macleod receive the Nobel Prize. Peptide medicine becomes an industry.
Vincent du Vigneaud synthesizes oxytocin, the first peptide hormone ever made in a laboratory. He receives the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1955.
Frederick Sanger works out the full amino-acid sequence of insulin, proving that every protein has a precise, readable structure. Nobel Prize, 1958.
Bruce Merrifield invents solid-phase peptide synthesis, building a peptide chain one amino acid at a time on a tiny resin bead. It is still how most peptides are made today. Nobel Prize, 1984.
The FDA approves human insulin made with recombinant DNA, the first medicine of its kind. Cells can now be programmed to produce peptide medicines.
In the mid-1980s, researchers including Svetlana Mojsov, Joel Habener, Daniel Drucker and Jens Juul Holst identify GLP-1, a gut peptide that helps the body release insulin after a meal.
Dr. John Eng at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs discovers exendin-4 in Gila monster venom. It works like GLP-1 but lasts much longer in the body.
The FDA approves exenatide, based on exendin-4, for type 2 diabetes. A new class of medicines is born.
Liraglutide (2010), dulaglutide (2014) and semaglutide (2017) are approved, each lasting longer than the last. Tesamorelin is also approved in 2010.
Bremelanotide is approved for hypoactive sexual desire disorder in premenopausal women, and the first oral GLP-1 tablet reaches pharmacies.
Tirzepatide becomes the first medicine that acts on both GIP and GLP-1 receptors, approved for type 2 diabetes in 2022 and for weight management in 2023.
Joel Habener, Svetlana Mojsov and Lotte Bjerre Knudsen receive the Lasker Award for the discovery and development of GLP-1 medicines.
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