Most retatrutide trials are full. Few people know that yet.
If you've searched "retatrutide clinical trials near me", you probably want what the trial volunteers got: Lilly's drug, free, with a doctor checking on you. That makes sense. The phase 2 results were the biggest any weight loss drug had posted, and you don't want to wait until 2028 to find out if it works for you. But when we pulled every retatrutide listing from the ClinicalTrials.gov database on October 19, 2026, the picture was very different from what the ads suggest.
🔑 Key Takeaways
- Only one open trial can give you retatrutide today, and it isn't a weight loss trial. Who it's looking for may surprise you.
- That trial has 141 US sites. Texas and Florida alone have 52. Fifteen states have none.
- Lilly's trial finder has an alert button that matters more than any search, because the next retatrutide trials haven't been posted yet.
- Getting in means accepting a chance of placebo or a different drug. Some trials end with a payoff for that.
- If no trial fits, there is a doctor-led route that didn't exist until August 2026.
Below is the full list of what's open, a state-by-state site table, how to sign up through Lilly, who usually qualifies, what joining is really like, and what to do if you don't make the cut.
Retatrutide Clinical Trials Near Me: What's Actually Open (October 2026)
The list is short. Here's why.
Lilly's big obesity program, called TRIUMPH, started in mid-2023 and kept adding trials through January 2026. They fill fast. TRIUMPH-9 began in January 2026 and is already closed to new volunteers. The first four have reported results, covered in our retatrutide phase 3 results roundup, and the ones still running are now just following the people already in them.
We queried the ClinicalTrials.gov API for every study that lists retatrutide or its code name, LY3437943, as an intervention. That returned 34 records from Lilly and academic sponsors: 22 completed, 9 active but not recruiting, 2 recruiting and 1 expanded access program marked "available". Here is everything that will take you right now.
NCT07165028
NCT07226947
NCT07629401
A search also turns up a phase 2 listing at a single hospital in Shenzhen, China, posted by a sponsor that isn't Lilly. We left it out. We couldn't confirm it, and it isn't reachable for readers in the US anyway.
The One Open Retatrutide Trial: SYNERGY-Outcomes
It's a liver trial. That's the catch.
SYNERGY-Outcomes (NCT07165028) is testing whether retatrutide or tirzepatide can prevent serious liver events in adults with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, the condition most people still call fatty liver disease. It started in October 2025, plans to enroll about 4,500 people and runs about 224 weeks, a little over four years. Participants can expect roughly 25 to 30 clinic visits over that time.
If you carry extra weight, you may already be closer to qualifying than you think. Fatty liver is common in people with obesity, and many never get tested. To enter, you need all three of these on screening tests:
- Liver fat of 8% or more
- An ELF blood test score between 9 and 10.8
- Liver stiffness of 10 to under 20 kPa on a FibroScan (VCTE)
You also need a BMI of 25 or higher, an HbA1c no higher than 10%, and no type 1 diabetes. You're out if you've lost more than 11 pounds in the three months before screening, have another type of liver disease, or have ever had decompensated liver disease such as varices or ascites.
Now the honest part. This is a master protocol with a retatrutide sub-study and a tirzepatide sub-study, each with its own placebo group. You could be assigned retatrutide, tirzepatide or placebo, and the registry doesn't publish the split. Only participants are blinded. What softens that: when the main study ends, eligible people can join an optional two-year extension where everyone gets retatrutide or tirzepatide, including those who had placebo.
Worth asking your doctor: if you've been told you have fatty liver, ask whether a FibroScan and an ELF test make sense. Those two results decide most of your eligibility for SYNERGY-Outcomes, and they're useful to know whether or not you enroll.
The second open listing, BICEP (NCT07226947), shows up in retatrutide searches but won't give you the drug. It's a 100-person study at a diabetes center in Boston testing whether a smartwatch and exercise reminders protect muscle in people who have just started, or plan to start, a GLP-1 drug such as semaglutide, tirzepatide or retatrutide. You bring your own treatment.
How to Search for Retatrutide Trials by State
Start with the site map. It changes your odds.
SYNERGY-Outcomes lists 141 US sites, and 137 of them were recruiting on our pull date. The other four were marked "not yet recruiting": one each in Chicago, Illinois; Morristown, New Jersey; Brooklyn, Ohio; and Richmond, Virginia. There are also two recruiting sites in Puerto Rico. Here is every state with a site.
No site was listed in Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, Wisconsin, Wyoming or Washington, D.C. If you live there, the nearest site may still be a reasonable drive, and with only 25 to 30 visits across four years, many people travel.
To run the search yourself on ClinicalTrials.gov:
- Go to clinicaltrials.gov and type retatrutide in the "Intervention/treatment" box (not the condition box).
- Type your city, state or ZIP code in the "Location" box and pick a distance, such as 50 or 100 miles.
- Under study status, tick "Recruiting" and "Not yet recruiting".
- Open any result and scroll to "Contacts and Locations". Each site has its own status, and only sites marked "Recruiting" are taking people.
If you're comfortable with a URL, the public API does the same thing in one line. Swapping in your state returns only trials with a site there: clinicaltrials.gov/api/v2/studies?query.intr=retatrutide&query.locn=Ohio&filter.overallStatus=RECRUITING,NOT_YET_RECRUITING. For Ohio that returns SYNERGY-Outcomes; for Oregon it returns nothing.
Retatrutide Trial Sign Up: Using Lilly's Trial Finder
Lilly's own site is the front door.
Lilly runs a public trial finder at trials.lilly.com. You enter a condition and a city or ZIP code (or tap "Use My Location"), then filter by phase, age group and whether a trial is enrolling. Each trial page has a "Take the Next Step" button that starts the contact process.
The most useful part is easy to miss. Under "Keep Me Updated", you can sign up for alerts about new trials and about sites near you that start enrolling. Since nine retatrutide trials are full and Lilly hasn't posted the next wave yet, an alert is the only way to hear the day one opens near you.
You can also reach the Lilly Trial Information Center directly:
- Phone: 1-877-CTLILLY (1-877-285-4559), Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern
- Text: YES to 317-854-5591
- Email: LillyTrials@Lilly.com
After you reach out, expect a short phone pre-screen with the site, then a screening visit with bloodwork, vitals and a review of your medical history. For SYNERGY-Outcomes, that's also where the liver tests happen. Not everyone who screens gets in, and that's normal. Screening exists to filter people out.
The Retatrutide Trials That Are Full (and When They End)
These won't take you. They still matter.
Every trial below is active but closed to new volunteers. Their end dates tell you roughly when Lilly will have its full data package and, in some cases, when follow-on studies might open.
NCT06260722
NCT06297603
NCT06662383
NCT06982859
NCT07232719
NCT07035093
NCT06859268
NCT07357415
NCT06383390
Notice the pattern. Lilly has said it plans to file for FDA approval in the first quarter of 2027, using the TRIUMPH obesity data. A decision would typically follow 10 to 12 months later, so late 2027 at the earliest. Our retatrutide FDA approval timeline walks through each step.
Who Usually Qualifies for a Retatrutide Trial
The rules repeat from trial to trial.
Because the next obesity trials aren't posted yet, the best preview is what the last ones required. This table pulls the criteria straight from the registry records for TRIUMPH-1, TRIUMPH-5 and TRIUMPH-6, the open liver trial and the expanded access program.
Two exclusions catch people off guard. The first is recent weight loss drugs. If you're already on semaglutide or tirzepatide, most obesity trials want a 90-day gap before screening. The second is recent weight change: losing or gaining more than about 11 pounds in the three months before screening usually rules you out, because it muddies the trial's results.
Trials also exclude people with a personal or family history of medullary thyroid cancer or MEN2, past pancreatitis, and a recent heart attack, stroke or heart failure hospitalization. These are the same cautions that apply to the approved GLP-1 drugs. Our guide to whether retatrutide is safe explains why.
What Joining a Retatrutide Trial Involves
It's a commitment. Here's what that means.
Visits. Trials are long. TRIUMPH-1 ran 80 weeks of treatment. SYNERGY-Outcomes runs about 224 weeks with 25 to 30 visits. Visits usually include weigh-ins, blood draws, and questions about side effects, and you inject yourself at home once a week between them.
Placebo or a different drug. Most trials compare retatrutide with placebo, and you won't know which you're on. Some compare it with another drug instead: TRIUMPH-5 pits retatrutide against tirzepatide with no placebo group at all. TRIUMPH-6 does the reverse of what most people want, switching some people who have already lost weight on retatrutide to placebo to see what happens.
Free drug and care. Lilly's trial pages say that for most trials, the study medicine and visits cost you nothing, though that isn't true of every trial. You should never be asked to pay to join a sponsored retatrutide trial.
Payment and travel. Lilly says some trials reimburse participants for time and travel, with amounts that vary by trial phase and visit type, and that any payment is explained during informed consent. FDA guidance treats travel reimbursement as fine, says payment should build up as the study goes on rather than all at the end, and allows only a small bonus for finishing. Ask the site for its numbers before you sign.
You can leave. Taking part is voluntary, and you can withdraw at any time without giving a reason.
Is the trade worth it? For many people, yes. In the phase 2 obesity trial, the 12 mg dose produced 24.2% average weight loss at 48 weeks, against 2.1% on placebo (NEJM 2023, 338 adults). Even with a placebo chance, a trial is the only route that comes with Lilly-made drug, regular monitoring and no bill.
What Happens When the Trial Ends
Your supply stops. Unless there's an extension.
When a trial closes, the study drug normally stops too, because retatrutide has no approval and can't be prescribed. That's the part people rarely ask about at screening, and it's the most important question to raise. Weight often creeps back when drugs in this class stop, and that's exactly what TRIUMPH-6 is designed to measure. Our guide to stopping retatrutide covers what to expect.
Some trials build in a bridge. TRIUMPH-1 added a 24-week extension where participants received retatrutide after the 80-week placebo-controlled period. SYNERGY-Outcomes offers an optional two-year extension where everyone gets an active drug. Before you enroll, ask the site coordinator three things: is there an open-label extension, who qualifies for it, and what happens to my treatment if the study ends before approval.
Don't Qualify? Expanded Access and Other Options
There is one more official route.
In August 2026, Lilly confirmed a limited expanded access program for retatrutide, after STAT reported that a single 79-year-old patient had been given the drug. The registry entry (NCT07629401) is single-patient access, and it's strict. You need all of the following:
- Age 18 or older
- A BMI of 35 or higher despite sticking with and tolerating the highest available dose of an approved weight management drug
- Two or more serious or life-threatening obesity-related complications that you're being treated for
- No way to join a retatrutide trial or a similar one, either because you don't meet the criteria or because no enrolling site is reasonably close
- A discussion with your doctor about every standard option, including bariatric surgery
You can't apply yourself. Your doctor makes the request, and meeting the criteria doesn't guarantee approval. Lilly hasn't said what it costs. The FDA's general rules for expanded access also require that no comparable approved treatment exists and that the benefit justifies the risk. Our retatrutide early access guide explains how doctors file the request.
Outside those two routes, people turn to online vendors. That route has none of a trial's protections: no medical oversight, no guarantee of what's in the vial, and real legal risk. In June 2026 the FDA said retatrutide isn't approved for any condition and can't be used in compounding, and warned telehealth companies marketing it. In August, Lilly sued six sellers, including online peptide shops, a med spa and a compounding pharmacy. If you still decide to go that way, read our guide on where to buy retatrutide first, which explains how to check a batch-specific lab report for purity, net content and identity. For current vial prices, our page on how to buy retatrutide online lists the 30 mg vial at $250, or $125 with code PEPTIDEDECK (affiliate link; we may earn a commission). For every route side by side, see how to get retatrutide.
Red Flags: Fake "Retatrutide Trial" Offers
Real trials don't advertise like stores.
Popular drugs attract fake trial pages, and "reta" draws exactly that kind of attention. Use these checks before you hand over your name, phone number or medical history:
- Look up the NCT number. Every real trial has one. Search it on ClinicalTrials.gov and confirm the sponsor is Eli Lilly or a named academic center, and that the site you're talking to appears under "Contacts and Locations".
- Check the site's status. A site marked "Completed" or "Active, not recruiting" isn't enrolling, whatever an ad says.
- Never pay to join. Sponsored trials don't charge enrollment fees or sell you the drug.
- Be wary of "trial access" telehealth. A company that sells you retatrutide after a quick online form is not running a clinical trial.
- Confirm with Lilly. If in doubt, call 1-877-CTLILLY and ask whether the site is part of a Lilly retatrutide study.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources
- ClinicalTrials.gov API v2, studies with retatrutide or LY3437943 as intervention, pulled October 19, 2026: clinicaltrials.gov/api/v2/studies?query.intr=retatrutide
- SYNERGY-Outcomes, NCT07165028 (Eli Lilly): clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT07165028
- BICEP, NCT07226947 (Massachusetts General Hospital): clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT07226947
- Pre-approval Expanded Access of Retatrutide, NCT07629401 (Eli Lilly): clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT07629401
- TRIUMPH-1, NCT05929066 (eligibility and 24-week extension period): clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05929066
- Active, not recruiting retatrutide trials: TRIUMPH-5, TRIUMPH-6, TRIUMPH-7, TRIUMPH-8, TRIUMPH-9, TRIUMPH-Outcomes, TRANSCEND-T2D-2, TRANSCEND-T2D-3, NCT06982859
- Lilly Trials, Find a Lilly Clinical Trial: trials.lilly.com/en-US/find
- Lilly Trials, cost and reimbursement information (research area page): trials.lilly.com
- US FDA, Payment and Reimbursement to Research Subjects, guidance, January 2018: fda.gov
- US FDA, Expanded Access: fda.gov/news-events/public-health-focus/expanded-access
- Jastreboff AM et al. Triple-Hormone-Receptor Agonist Retatrutide for Obesity. N Engl J Med. 2023. PMID 37366315: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37366315
- BioSpace, Lilly preps FDA run for triple-G weight loss drug with phase 3 data (BLA planned Q1 2027): biospace.com
- STAT, Eli Lilly retatrutide mystery patient, August 3, 2026: statnews.com
- Healio, Eli Lilly files lawsuits against six companies for allegedly selling retatrutide, August 14, 2026: healio.com
Medical Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Retatrutide has no FDA approval. Trial status and site lists change often; confirm details on ClinicalTrials.gov or with the study site before acting. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before starting or stopping any medication. PeptideDeck may earn a commission from affiliate links at no additional cost to you.
