Noopept vs Piracetam
Research Comparison

Research Overview

Noopept vs piracetam pairs a compound with the drug it was modeled on. Noopept, also called omberacetam and GVS-111, is N-phenylacetyl-L-prolylglycine ethyl ester, designed at the V. V. Zakusov Research Institute of Pharmacology in Moscow by imitating the structure of piracetam with a short peptide (Ostrovskaia et al., 2002). Piracetam, the first racetam, came from Corneliu Giurgea's research in the late 1960s (Shorvon, 2001).

The evidence differs as much as the chemistry. Piracetam has placebo-controlled trials pooled in systematic reviews (Flicker and Grimley Evans, 2001). Noopept has rat and cell studies, mostly from its developers, and a few small human studies from Russian centers. Disguised Alpha carries both as research capsules, Noopept and Piracetam, with the format as listed on each product page, for laboratory research use only.

Structure and Class

Piracetam is 2-(2-oxopyrrolidin-1-yl)acetamide: C6H10N2O2, 142.16 g/mol (PubChem CID 4843). Its five-membered lactam ring, 2-oxopyrrolidine, is the core of the family it founded (Shorvon, 2001), and our racetams guide shows how the other members change it.

Noopept is C17H22N2O4, 318.4 g/mol (PubChem CID 180496), matching its product page. It is L-proline joined to glycine by one peptide bond, with a phenylacetyl cap on the proline nitrogen and an ethyl ester on the glycine. Its only nitrogen ring is the pyrrolidine of proline, with no ring carbonyl, so it lacks the racetam core. The link to piracetam is one of design: a 2003 cell study calls it an N-acylprolyl-containing dipeptide analog of piracetam (Pelsman et al., 2003).

Noopept is about 2.2 times heavier, so 1 mg holds about 3.14 µmol of Noopept but about 7.03 µmol of piracetam.

Side by Side

Research Context: Noopept

Its developers came to see Noopept as a possible prodrug. One hour after rats received 5 mg/kg intraperitoneally, the parent compound was below detection in brain, while cycloprolylglycine, a cyclic dipeptide also present in control brain, had risen 2.5-fold; plasma and brain enzymes formed it from Noopept in vitro (Gudasheva et al., 1997). Models: rats and enzyme assays.

Rodent memory work comes mainly from the same laboratory. Given by mouth at 0.5 to 10 mg/kg, Noopept kept its antiamnesic activity in rats trained in passive avoidance, and repeated exposure raised the number of successful learners among rats that first failed a one-session active avoidance task, which the authors said set it apart from cycloprolylglycine and piracetam (Ostrovskaya et al., 2001).

The laboratory's overview reports an effective level 1,000 times lower than piracetam's, and action on memory consolidation and retrieval where, it says, piracetam aids only early stages (Ostrovskaia et al., 2002). Both comparisons are the developers' own. Model: rats.

Cell work gives the clearest head-to-head data. In cultured cerebellar granule cells, GVS-111 protected neurons from oxygen and glucose deprivation, glutamate and oxidative stress, while piracetam did not reduce glutamate toxicity (Andreeva et al., 2000). In human cortical neurons exposed to hydrogen peroxide, it raised survival from 10 nM to 100 µM (half-maximal value 1.21 µM) and protected significantly more than piracetam, in a University of Connecticut study with Moscow co-authors (Pelsman et al., 2003). Models: neuron cultures.

The human record is small. The developing institute compared Noopept with piracetam in people with mild cognitive disorders of vascular or traumatic origin; PubMed holds no abstract, so the outcome is not summarized here (Neznamov and Teleshova, 2009). An open study of 60 people with mild cognitive impairment after stroke reported significant gains on the MMSE and association tests at 2 months against controls (Amelin et al., 2011). A 2021 rat paper on Noopept and spinal BDNF was retracted (PMID 33644478) and is not used here.

Research Context: Piracetam

Piracetam's record is longer and broader, but its mechanism is still open: a 2001 Lancet review called the mechanisms of the 2-oxopyrrolidine family not fully established and possibly different from one compound to the next (Shorvon, 2001).

Membrane fluidity is one long-running hypothesis. Piracetam at 0.1 to 1.0 mmol/L raised the fluidity of brain membranes from aged mice in vitro, with similar effects in aged rat and human membranes and none in young mice. Rats given 300 mg/kg daily showed higher fluidity in some brain regions and better active avoidance learning, in aged animals only (Müller et al., 1997). Models: rodent and human brain membranes; young and aged rats.

Elimination has been measured in people. In a crossover study of 16 healthy men, only about two thirds of the amount given appeared in urine over 24 hours, and the authors argued that elimination is not purely renal (Rameis et al., 1994). Model: healthy volunteers.

The trial record is large and inconclusive. A 2001 Cochrane review of randomized placebo-controlled trials in dementia or cognitive impairment found that only global impression of change had enough pooled data, favoring piracetam (fixed-effects odds ratio 3.55, with heterogeneity), while effects on cognition were inconclusive; the reviewers concluded that the published evidence did not support piracetam for these conditions (Flicker and Grimley Evans, 2001).

A 2024 meta-analysis of 18 placebo-controlled studies in 886 adults with memory impairment found no clear memory difference (standardized mean difference 0.75, 95% CI -0.19 to 1.69, I² 96%) (Gouhie et al., 2024). Model: human trials.

Choosing Between Them for a Research Question

Questions about a dipeptide that may act through a metabolite, about cycloprolylglycine itself, or about protecting cultured neurons from glutamate or peroxide have direct precedent with Noopept, with piracetam as the usual comparator. Questions about membrane fluidity, learning in aged animals, or a reference compound with a large controlled human record point to piracetam.

Three design points follow. Compare the two on moles, not milligrams. Decide whether the readout is the parent compound or cycloprolylglycine, since parent Noopept was undetectable in rat brain an hour after exposure (Gudasheva et al., 1997). And read the 1,000-fold figure as the developers' finding, not a conversion factor.

Handling and Storage

Both product pages list the same storage for their capsules: 15 to 25°C in the original sealed container, away from moisture and direct light. Close the container fully after each opening and record the lot number.

The two separate easily by mass, 318.4 against 142.16 g/mol, and by polarity: PubChem's computed XLogP is 1.5 for Noopept and -1.3 for piracetam. Noopept's ethyl ester can hydrolyze in aqueous solution, so prepare solutions fresh. For quantitative work, use the measured content per capsule on each lot's certificate in the COA portal.

Questions Researchers Ask

Is Noopept a racetam?

Not by structure. Racetams share piracetam's 2-oxopyrrolidine ring, and Noopept's only nitrogen ring is the pyrrolidine of proline. Its nonproprietary name, omberacetam, has the -racetam ending, and its developers designed it as a dipeptide analog of piracetam (Ostrovskaia et al., 2002).

What are omberacetam and GVS-111?

Other names for Noopept. Omberacetam is its International Nonproprietary Name, and GVS-111 is the code used in early papers such as the rat metabolism study (Gudasheva et al., 1997). SGS-111 also appears, and PubChem CID 180496 lists all three.

Noopept and piracetam: what is the difference?

Structure, mass and evidence. Noopept is a 318.4 g/mol dipeptide derivative that yields cycloprolylglycine in rat brain; piracetam is a 142.16 g/mol lactam, the parent racetam. Noopept data are mostly rat and cell work from one institute; piracetam's include pooled placebo-controlled trials (Gouhie et al., 2024).

Piracetam vs Noopept: which has more human data?

Piracetam, by far: more than 100 PubMed records typed as randomized controlled trials against none for Noopept under any of its names (October 2026). Noopept's human work is small open or comparative studies from Russian centers (Amelin et al., 2011).

Are Noopept and piracetam approved drugs?

Not in the United States. Drugs@FDA lists no product containing piracetam or omberacetam (openFDA search, October 2026), and a 2019 FDA warning letter determined that one seller's Noopept and Piracetam products, sold with disease claims, were new drugs that cannot be legally marketed without FDA approval. A European Medicines Agency list dated January 2023 shows piracetam medicines nationally authorized in more than 20 countries. Research material in this catalog is not that medicine.