Major Players - Peptide Therapeutics Industry

Peptide therapeutics have become a bigger and bigger part of drug development, especially in cancer, metabolic disorders, and other chronic diseases. The global peptide therapeutics market is estimated at USD 53,869.3 Million in 2026 and projected to reach USD 85,376.8 Million by 2033, registering a 6.8% CAGR from 2026 to 2033. The growing R&D activity, a rising burden of cancer and metabolic disease, and partnerships between pharmaceutical and biotech companies are all feeding that expansion.

The market is also moving past the traditional injectable-peptide model. Some of the observable trends are that pharmaceutical companies are increasingly exploring oral delivery, sharper targeting, computational peptide design, as well as longer-acting therapies. Furthermore, branded peptide therapeutics registered over 61% of market revenue in 2026, thus making them the leading segment by product-type, while cancer is the leading application with a 43% revenue share in 2026.

What are Peptide Therapeutics?

Peptide therapeutics are medicines built from short chains of amino acids, usually with molecular weights somewhere between 500 and 5,000 Da. They're designed to act on specific biological targets and show up in treatment for cancer, metabolic disease, cardiovascular disease, and more.

How these therapies get developed is changing too. For instance, one major trend that is worth noting is the push to make peptide drugs easier to take, particularly via oral delivery. A second trend is the rising usage of AI as well as computational tools to design and fine-tune peptide candidates. Meanwhile, the targeted peptide-drug conjugates are attracting greater attention in oncology as well, as developers seek more selective ways to deliver potent treatments.

Leading Companies in the Peptide Therapeutics Industry

• Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., is a global pharmaceutical company, and has a substantial footprint in both generic as well as innovative medicines. Its peptide-related portfolio includes therapies like liraglutide, and its broader strategy keeps blending branded medicines with a large generic business.

In August 2025, Teva won the U.S. FDA approval for, and launched, generic Saxenda (liraglutide injection) — described by the company as the first generic GLP-1 receptor agonist approved for weight loss. It's a clear sign that peptide-based metabolic therapies are becoming part of the generic-drug opportunity as patents start to expire.

• Novo Nordisk A/S

Novo Nordisk has built a major position in peptide therapeutics through its diabetes and obesity medicines, GLP-1-based treatments included.

Now the company's pushing on the delivery side too. On September 29, 2026, Novo Nordisk signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Hengrui Pharma for HRS-1596, a phase 1-ready GLP-1/GIP dual receptor agonist built for once-weekly oral dosing. The deal gives Novo global development, manufacturing, and commercialization rights outside mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, with potential value of up to USD 2.6 billion. It's a textbook example of the broader push to make peptide-based metabolic treatments easier to take.

• Lilly

Eli Lilly is a pharmaceutical company originating in the U.S., and has a growing lineup of peptide-based metabolic therapies. In July 2026, Eli Lilly reported phase 3 results that are positive for retatrutide, an investigational triple hormone receptor agonist targeting the GIP, GLP-1, and glucagon pathways.

The company said results from two additional Phase 3 trials showed substantial weight loss along with improvements in A1C, and it plans to submit the medicine to the FDA in 2027. This reflects another major trend in the space, such as stacking multiple hormonal pathways into a single therapy for metabolic disease.

• Sanofi

Sanofi is a global pharmaceutical company active across immunology, diabetes, rare diseases, and other therapeutic areas, with peptide therapeutics exposure through diabetes treatment and other biologically targeted medicines.

The company keeps investing in research and partnerships aimed at expanding its specialty-medicine portfolio, as the wider peptide market shifts toward targeted treatment and therapies that improve efficacy without adding to the treatment burden.

• Pfizer Inc.

Pfizer is a major U.S. pharmaceutical and biotechnology company, with peptide development activity especially visible in metabolic disease.

In February 2026, Pfizer reported positive Phase 2b results for its ultra-long-acting GLP-1 receptor agonist berobenatide (PF'3944), showing continued weight loss after patients switched from weekly to monthly dosing. By June, Pfizer had presented additional Phase 2b data and said it planned to advance 10 Phase 3 studies for berobenatide during 2026. The program is a good illustration of the push toward longer-acting peptide therapies that cut down on how often patients need to dose.

• Novartis AG

Novartis is a Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company with research spanning oncology, immunology, neuroscience, and other therapeutic areas. Its peptide-related work sits inside a broader move toward targeted and precision medicines.

The industry's growing interest in targeted delivery matters most in oncology. Peptide-drug conjugates use peptides to steer therapeutic payloads toward tumors, and recent clinical development suggests the approach is moving well past lab research into broader clinical testing.

• Merck KGaA

Merck KGaA is a German science and technology company with activities spanning healthcare, life sciences, and electronics. In pharmaceuticals, it works on drug discovery and development technologies that support more targeted therapeutic approaches.

Its place in the peptide therapeutics market reflects how much specialized drug-development capability matters now, as pharmaceutical companies tackle increasingly complex peptide candidates.

• Amgen Inc.

Amgen is an American biotechnology company. It has a considerably strong presence in metabolic disease, inflammation, oncology, as well as in other therapeutic areas.

The company has stayed active in peptide-based metabolic medicine too, reinforcing just how central obesity and cardiometabolic disease have become to peptide therapeutics. That focus lines up with the industry's broader shift toward highly targeted treatments for chronic disease.

• AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca is a global biopharmaceutical company with a broad pipeline covering oncology, cardiovascular and metabolic disease, respiratory medicine, and more.

Peptide development is also riding a wider trend toward computational drug discovery. Furthermore, the usage of AI along with machine-learning systems are increasing in identifying targets, optimizing candidate molecules, assessing properties such as stabilities, and in speeding up lead selection. Recent research in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery describes AI as becoming part of the drug-discovery workflow itself, not just an experimental add-on.

• Bayer AG

Bayer is a German pharmaceutical and biotechnology company working across healthcare and life sciences. Its place among major peptide therapeutics companies reflects how broadly large pharmaceutical firms are now participating in targeted, biologically specific drug development.

Bottom Line

Competition increasingly centers on research pipelines, partnerships, delivery technology, manufacturing capability, and the ability to actually turn promising peptide candidates into approved medicines. Moreover, Coherent’s market analysis points to partnerships and other inorganic strategies as a major part of how companies grow their peptide portfolios.

North America remains the center of the market, accounting for 37.8% of global peptide therapeutics revenue in 2026. The U.S. dominates within the region, backed by its concentration of pharmaceutical and biotech companies, strong R&D infrastructure, high demand for advanced therapies, and ongoing investment in personalized and targeted medicine. Eli Lilly's major U.S. manufacturing expansion is one example of how peptide and metabolic-drug demand is translating into domestic production investment, too.

Put it all together and the trajectory of the Peptide Therapeutics market is fairly clear. The industry isn't just producing more peptide drugs, it's working on better ways to design them, deliver them, target them, and lighten the burden of actually taking them. With branded products already accounting for more than 61% of the market, and companies pushing oral, long-acting, computationally designed, and targeted therapies, those advances look set to shape the next phase of growth.