Cortagen 20 mg

About Cortagen

Cortagen is a four-amino-acid peptide: alanine, glutamic acid, aspartic acid and proline (Ala-Glu-Asp-Pro, or AEDP).³¹⁰ Researchers in Vladimir Khavinson's program built it by directed synthesis after analyzing the amino acids of Cortexin, a peptide preparation extracted from brain cortex.³⁵ Cortexin was created at the Military Medical Academy in 1986; its memory and attention studies concern the extract, so they are not evidence for Cortagen.¹¹³ In rat organ cultures, Cortagen stimulated the growth of brain cortex explants, which the developers describe as a tissue-specific effect.⁵

This page lists Cortagen as a 20 mg research vial. Its nearest relatives in the catalog are Epithalon (AEDG), which differs only in the last amino acid, and Cardiogen (AEDR) and Cartalax (AED), which share its first three.⁹⁶ For the evidence in depth, including the nerve studies and what is unknown about safety, see What is Cortagen?

Research highlights

• Sciatic nerve, rats (2000, animal): injected into muscle for 10 days after the nerve was cut and sutured, Cortagen raised the growth rate of regenerating fibers by 27% and their conduction velocity by 40%.⁴
• Chronic brain ischemia, rats (2011, animal): Cortagen, like its parent extract Cortexin, sped recovery of disturbed behavior and prevented excess lipid peroxidation and a fall in antioxidant activity in brain tissue.⁷
• Mouse heart (2004, animal): five days of injections significantly changed the expression of 234 of 15,247 clones, with maximum changes of +5.42 (up) and -2.86 (down).³
• Pituitary-removed chickens and old birds (2008, animal): Epithalon injections over 40 days reversed anemia and immune and clotting changes, while Cortagen injections did not affect these measures.⁹
• Lymphocytes from people aged 75 to 88 (2004, cell study): Cortagen, like four related peptides, activated ribosomal genes and loosened tightly packed chromatin.⁸

Regulatory status

Cortagen is not an FDA-approved drug; as of October 2026, a DailyMed search returns no label.¹⁴ It is absent from FDA's Category 2 list of compounding substances that may present significant safety risks and from that list's withdrawn nominations.¹⁶ No human trial is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov.¹⁵ In an August 2025 public advisory, Health Canada named Cortagen among unauthorized injectable peptide drugs seized from the online seller Canada Peptide, noting that injectable peptides are prescription drugs in Canada and that none of the seized products had been assessed for safety, efficacy and quality.¹² WADA does not list Cortagen by name, but its class S0 bans at all times pharmacological substances not covered elsewhere on the list that have no current approval by any government health authority for human therapeutic use.¹³

Handling and storage

Cortagen contains aspartic acid, one of the residues GenScript names as shortening a peptide's life in solution, and GenScript does not recommend keeping peptides dissolved for long.¹⁸ Bachem suggests that any solution that must be stored is split into portions and frozen below -15 °C.¹⁹ The supplier's 30-day window for a mixed vial kept cold is its own figure; we found no published stability data for Cortagen solutions.¹⁷²¹ At 430.4 g/mol, 1 mg of Cortagen is about 2.32 micromoles, by our arithmetic.¹ The reconstitution guide sets out the lab steps, and the reconstitution calculator gives the concentration for any diluent volume.