What Is Glucagon Used For? Approved Uses, Per the Label

The short answer

Glucagon is a prescription medicine in the United States, not an over the counter product and not a supplement. Approved prescribing information for glucagon products describes two broad categories of use: treatment of severe hypoglycemia in people with diabetes, and use as a diagnostic aid to temporarily inhibit movement of the gastrointestinal tract during certain radiologic or imaging procedures. Which product carries which of those indications depends on the individual label, because not every glucagon presentation is approved for both. This page is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice; consult a licensed physician about whether any medicine is appropriate for a particular person.

US label versions on DailyMed: Glucagon Emergency Kit (Amphastar), DailyMed label version August 2026. The current label for the specific product governs.

What glucagon is

Glucagon is a 29 amino acid peptide hormone produced by the alpha cells of the pancreatic islets. Its physiological role is counter regulatory to insulin: it signals through the glucagon receptor, a class B G protein coupled receptor expressed heavily in liver, and promotes hepatic glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis, raising circulating glucose. Pharmaceutical glucagon reproduces that human sequence and is manufactured by recombinant methods. It also relaxes smooth muscle of the gastrointestinal tract, which is the basis of its second label category.

Because glucagon is a peptide that is degraded in the gastrointestinal tract, approved products are given by injection or, in one formulation, as a powder delivered into the nose. No oral tablet form of glucagon is approved.

Indication one: severe hypoglycemia

The best known label use is emergency treatment of severe hypoglycemia in people with diabetes. Severe hypoglycemia in this context refers to an episode in which blood glucose falls far enough that the affected person cannot self treat and needs assistance from another person. Labels for glucagon emergency products are written for that situation, which is why many of these products are packaged as kits, autoinjectors, prefilled syringes or nasal devices intended to be usable by a caregiver.

Age limits vary by product. Some labels cover adults and pediatric patients across a wide age range, while others specify a minimum age. The precise wording, including any pediatric age cut off, appears in the Indications and Usage section of each product's current prescribing information, and that document is the authority for the product in hand. Nothing on this page substitutes for reading it with a clinician or pharmacist.

Indication two: diagnostic aid in radiologic examination

Several glucagon for injection labels carry a second indication: use as a diagnostic aid during radiologic examinations to temporarily inhibit movement of the gastrointestinal tract. Slowing peristalsis improves image quality in studies of the stomach, duodenum, small bowel and colon, and glucagon has been used by radiology services for this purpose for many years. This indication is typically found on the vial or reconstituted powder presentations rather than on the compact emergency devices designed for caregiver use during hypoglycemia, so the two indication sets do not map onto every product equally.

Forms in which glucagon is approved

Approved glucagon products differ mainly in how the peptide is stabilised and delivered. The table below summarises the general categories, not any specific brand label.

This page gives no administration instructions, no quantities and no timing. Those details are specific to each product and to each patient and belong to the prescribing clinician and the approved labelling.

Dasiglucagon, a glucagon analogue with its own approval

Dasiglucagon is a glucagon analogue developed to be stable in aqueous solution, which removes the reconstitution step required by traditional powder kits. A 2021 review in Drugs reported that dasiglucagon received its first approval in the United States for the treatment of severe hypoglycemia in patients with diabetes, and summarised the development programme leading to that approval (PMID 34047955). That review described dasiglucagon as a product of the glucagon analogue class rather than native human glucagon, so its label stands on its own rather than extending any glucagon label (PMID 34047955).

Regulatory history of the indications

Glucagon for injection is one of the older peptide medicines in routine clinical use, and the severe hypoglycemia indication has been part of United States labelling for decades. The diagnostic aid indication was added to injection labels to reflect established radiology practice. More recent regulatory activity has focused less on new indications and more on new delivery of the same indication: formulations that avoid mixing a powder with a diluent under emergency conditions, including ready to use liquid injectors and an intranasal powder, were approved for the severe hypoglycemia indication already established for the molecule.

The dasiglucagon approval documented in the 2021 review followed that same pattern, extending the severe hypoglycemia indication to a stable analogue rather than opening a new therapeutic area (PMID 34047955). Specific approval dates, revision years and exact indication wording differ from label to label and should be read from the current prescribing information for the product concerned.

Evidence behind the indications

The pivotal trial reports supporting the original glucagon indications are not part of the verified citation set used on this page, and this page does not paraphrase trials it cannot cite. Readers looking for those primary documents can consult FDA approval packages and the clinical studies sections of each product label, which name the studies that supported each indication. For dasiglucagon, the 2021 review in Drugs summarised the regulatory milestones and the development programme behind the approval (PMID 34047955).

Glucagon biology also appears in the broader metabolic literature. A 2026 Lancet review of incretin based medicines reported on metabolic, cardiovascular and renal outcomes across approved and next generation agents, several of which engage receptors in the glucagon family (PMID 41547366). That literature describes a separate field of drug development and does not change what glucagon itself is approved to do.

A note on uses that are not approved

Glucagon receptor agonism is also a component of investigational multi-agonist molecules. Researchers described the design of registrational trials for retatrutide, an agonist at the glucagon, GIP and GLP-1 receptors, in obesity, obstructive sleep apnea and knee osteoarthritis (PMID 41090431), and a 2025 systematic review reported on this emerging class more broadly (PMID 39952695). Those are investigational agents and are not approved uses of glucagon.

Adverse Events: What Studies Report

Tolerability information for an approved prescription medicine sits in the approved labelling, under warnings, precautions and adverse reactions, and that labelling is the appropriate reference for any individual product. Within the citation set used here, the 2021 review of dasiglucagon reported the regulatory milestones and development programme for that analogue rather than a detailed tolerability table (PMID 34047955). A 2025 systematic review of emerging obesity pharmacotherapies reported efficacy and safety findings for investigational agents, including multi-agonists with glucagon receptor activity, which are distinct molecules from glucagon itself (PMID 39952695). Researchers outlining the retatrutide registrational programme reported that safety and tolerability endpoints were built into those trial designs (PMID 41090431). A 2026 review of incretin based medicines similarly reported on benefit and risk across that broader class (PMID 41547366). None of those sources substitutes for the adverse reactions section of a current glucagon label, and questions about personal risk belong to a prescribing clinician.

Questions a prescribing clinician answers

Decisions that fall outside what an educational page can address include whether a glucagon product is appropriate for a given person, which presentation suits a household or care setting, how a caregiver should be trained, what interactions or contraindications apply, and what to do after an episode of severe hypoglycemia. Those questions are answered by the prescribing clinician, pharmacist and diabetes care team using the current label.

For background on glucagon receptor biology, product formats and how the literature describes this peptide, see the glucagon overview.

References

• Dasiglucagon: First Approval (Drugs, 2021)
• Glucagon-like receptor agonists and next-generation incretin-based medications: metabolic, cardiovascular, and renal benefits (Lancet, 2026)
• Emerging pharmacotherapies for obesity: A systematic review (Pharmacological Reviews, 2025)
• Retatrutide for the treatment of obesity, obstructive sleep apnea and knee osteoarthritis: Rationale and design of the TRIUMPH registrational clinical trials (Diabetes, Obesity & Metabolism, 2026)