AOD-9604: evidence, dosing, safety & interactions
Modified fragment of human growth hormone, amino acids 176–191 (Tyr-hGH Frag 176-191)
This is a lab-made piece of growth hormone, engineered to burn fat without growth hormone's other effects. It hasn't been proven to work in real human studies, and it isn't approved as a medicine anywhere.
- What it is
- A 16-amino-acid fragment of human growth hormone, designed to isolate the fat-burning (lipolytic) effect of growth hormone without its growth or blood-sugar effects.
- Evidence
- Reached Phase IIb human testing for obesity — real trial infrastructure existed. The pivotal Phase IIb trial did not beat placebo on its primary weight-loss endpoint, and the programme was discontinued.
- Studied dose
- The pharmaceutical development programme tested oral doses (reported around 0.25–1 mg/day) in several hundred obese adults — a different route than the injectable products sold online today.
- Safety
- The Phase IIb trial reportedly raised no major safety signal (no significant IGF-1 elevation or glucose disturbance) — the problem was a lack of effect, not a safety failure. No controlled data exist for the injectable products sold online.
What human trials actually show
Randomized, placebo-controlled human trials only. Animal data never appears in this section — it cannot raise a grade, and it is noted separately below.
- 01Obesity (Silver Spring)2006— AOD-9604 among emerging anti-obesity drug candidates
- Design
- Narrative review of drugs affecting cardiovascular risk in overweight patients
- Dose
- Not specified in the review
- Duration
- n/a
Review of drugs then in clinical trials, not a primary trial itself
Lists AOD-9604 among drugs then in clinical trials intended to improve adipose tissue function or fatty-acid metabolism, alongside other investigational anti-obesity compounds of that era, most of which — including AOD-9604 — did not go on to reach approval.
doi:10.1038/oby.2006.294 - 02Drug Testing and Analysis2015— Detection of AOD-9604 as a performance-enhancing substance
- Design
- Analytical method validation study
- Dose
- n/a
- Duration
- n/a
n/a — laboratory analytical study, not a human efficacy trial
Confirms that AOD-9604 is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency because it is reported to mimic growth hormone's lipolytic properties without its diabetogenic side effects, making it attractive as a performance-enhancing substance, and describes a validated method to detect it and its metabolites in urine.
doi:10.1002/dta.1715 - 03Sports Medicine2026— Safety and efficacy of approved and unapproved peptide therapies marketed in sports medicine
- Design
- Narrative review
- Dose
- n/a — review
- Duration
- n/a
Covers AOD-9604 among a group of approved and unapproved peptides marketed direct to patients for injury recovery and performance
Groups AOD-9604 with other unapproved peptides sold direct to patients, noting that rigorous human safety data are scarce for this category of compounds despite favorable results in some animal models, and that there is potential for serious harm to patients who use them outside regulatory oversight.
doi:10.1007/s40279-026-02437-0
The single most important fact about AOD-9604 is not an absence of evidence — it is a specific negative result. Its pharmaceutical sponsor, Metabolic Pharmaceuticals, ran a pivotal Phase IIb trial in several hundred obese adults testing multiple oral doses against placebo over roughly 12–24 weeks. According to the company's own public disclosures at the time, the trial did not achieve statistically significant weight loss over placebo at any dose, despite an earlier, smaller Phase IIa trial having shown a modest positive signal. That Phase IIb result was never published in a peer-reviewed journal — which is itself a signal about how the underlying data looked — so it is described here from the public trial record rather than treated as a PubMed-verified citation. The obesity development programme was discontinued after this result. Everything sold online today as injectable AOD-9604 is also a different product on a different route than what was tested: the pharmaceutical trials used oral dosing, while gray-market AOD-9604 is sold and used as a subcutaneous injection with no human trial behind that route at all.
Grade D — insufficient or unsafe. AOD-9604's own pharmaceutical sponsor ran it through Phase I and Phase II human trials for obesity, including a large, pivotal Phase IIb trial in several hundred obese adults. That pivotal trial did not achieve statistically significant weight loss over placebo at any dose tested, and the obesity development programme was discontinued afterward. This is not a compound whose evidence is merely thin — it is a compound that was tested at real scale for exactly the use it is now marketed for, and failed. How we grade evidence.
Side effects & safety
- Reported in the pharmaceutical trial programme
- Public disclosures around the failed Phase IIb trial described a reassuring safety profile at the doses tested — no significant elevation in IGF-1 and no notable glucose disturbance — meaning the programme failed on effectiveness, not on safety, at that specific oral dose.
- Injectable product sold online
- No controlled human trial has tested the safety of injectable, subcutaneous AOD-9604 at the doses and frequency sold online. This is a different route of administration than anything in the pharmaceutical development programme.
- Product risk
- No approved pharmaceutical formulation of AOD-9604 exists for any route. Material sold online is unregulated research-grade product of unverified purity, sterility and concentration.
- The honest caveat
- AOD-9604 is sometimes marketed as "clinically tested" or "backed by human trials," which is true only in the sense that its own developer tested and then abandoned it after the trial failed to beat placebo. Citing the existence of trials without disclosing their result is misleading.
Interactions with medications
The section most longevity sites skip. If you take prescription medication, read this before anything else on the page.
No controlled human interaction data exist for injectable AOD-9604 at any dose sold online.
AOD-9604 was specifically engineered from a growth-hormone fragment to avoid growth hormone's effects on blood sugar, but this was tested at a specific oral dose in a formal trial — not at the injectable doses sold today. Anyone on glucose-lowering therapy should treat that reassurance as unverified for the product actually being used.
AOD-9604 is prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency because of its growth-hormone-derived, potentially performance-enhancing lipolytic mechanism. A tested athlete using it risks a sanction regardless of whether it works.
Is AOD-9604 legal where you live?
Regulatory status is tracked per market and reviewed on the date shown. Where a compound is not authorised, this site does not link to sellers.
Not an approved drug for any use and not lawfully sold as a dietary supplement. Its own sponsor's Phase IIb obesity trial failed to beat placebo, and the FDA has not approved any AOD-9604 product.
Source: US Food and Drug Administration
No marketing authorisation as a medicine and not permitted as a food supplement. Products reaching UK buyers as "AOD-9604" are unlicensed.
Source: MHRA
No marketing authorisation in the EU and no novel-food authorisation. There is no lawful consumer route of supply.
Source: European Medicines Agency
Aucune autorisation de mise sur le marché et aucun statut de nouvel aliment. Il n'existe aucune voie légale d'approvisionnement pour l'AOD-9604.
Source: European Commission / EFSA
Sin autorización de comercialización ni condición de nuevo alimento. No existe una vía legal de suministro para el AOD-9604.
Source: European Commission / EFSA
Germany applies the EU position: no authorised medicinal product and no permitted supplement use for AOD-9604.
Source: BfArM / European Medicines Agency
Not an approved medicine and not sold as a supplement in the UAE. We found no verified MOHAP-published position specific to AOD-9604, but no legitimate consumer or over-the-counter route to the compound was found.
Source: UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP)
Not SFDA-registered in any category. We could not independently verify a specific SFDA-published position on AOD-9604, but no legitimate consumer or clinical route to the compound was found.
Source: Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA)
Non è un farmaco autorizzato né un integratore alimentare consentito, come nel resto dell'UE. La vendita al di fuori dei canali autorizzati può inoltre rientrare nelle sanzioni della Legge 376/2000 per gli sportivi tesserati, dato che l'AOD-9604 è incluso nella lista delle sostanze proibite dalla WADA.
Source: Ministero della Salute / Legge 376/2000 antidoping
Geen goedgekeurd geneesmiddel en niet toegestaan als voedingssupplement, zoals elders in de EU. Toediening aan mensen blijft niet goedgekeurd en niet zonder risico.
Source: CBG-MEB / IGJ (Geneesmiddelenwet)
Segundo reportagens sobre alertas da Anvisa a respeito de peptídeos vendidos online, o AOD9604 está entre os compostos amplamente divulgados sem registro em nenhuma categoria regulatória. Não conseguimos verificar de forma independente um documento primário da Anvisa citando o AOD-9604 especificamente pelo nome, mas nenhuma via legal de comercialização para uso humano foi encontrada.
Source: Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (ANVISA)
Dosing & timing
Publicly reported doses from the pivotal obesity trial, taken orally — a different route than the injectable products marketed today. No dose in this trial beat placebo on weight loss.
Protocols circulating online for subcutaneous injection were never tested in the pharmaceutical development programme and have no controlled human data behind them at all.
No AOD-9604 product has ever been approved by any health authority, for any route, following the discontinuation of its obesity development programme.
Questions people actually ask
Does AOD-9604 actually cause fat loss?
Its own developer's pivotal Phase IIb human trial, in several hundred obese adults, did not show statistically significant weight loss over placebo at any dose tested. An earlier, smaller trial had shown a modest positive signal, but it did not hold up at larger scale — which is why the obesity development programme was discontinued rather than advanced toward approval.
Is AOD-9604 FDA-approved or clinically proven?
No. It reached Phase IIb human trials for obesity, which is further than many peptides sold online ever get — but the trial failed to beat placebo, and no health authority has approved it for any use. "Clinically tested" is true; "clinically proven to work" is not.
Is the injectable AOD-9604 sold online the same as what was tested?
Not exactly. The pharmaceutical trials tested oral dosing. What is sold online today is typically an injectable, subcutaneous product — a different route that was never studied in any human trial, on top of the oral version already having failed its primary efficacy endpoint.
Is AOD-9604 legal?
It is not an approved medicine anywhere and not lawfully sold as a dietary supplement. It is also banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency because of its growth-hormone-derived mechanism, so competitive athletes face a sanction risk independent of the health question.
Is AOD-9604 safe?
The failed pharmaceutical trial reportedly showed a reassuring safety profile at the oral dose tested — the problem was that it didn't work, not that it caused harm. But that data does not transfer to the injectable, unregulated products sold online today, which have never been through a comparable controlled human trial.