16-amino-acid growth hormone fragment developed as an obesity pill; it failed its 536-person trial in 2007 and was never approved.
Also called Anti-Obesity Drug 9604, AOD9604, Tyr-hGH(177-191), lipolytic fragment of growth hormone
AOD-9604 is a short piece of the tail end of human growth hormone (amino acids 177 to 191) with a tyrosine added at the front. An Australian company, Metabolic Pharmaceuticals, developed it in the late 1990s on the idea that this piece carries growth hormone's fat-burning effect without its effects on blood sugar, growth or IGF-1. In obese mice and rats it did slow weight gain and raise fat breakdown.
In people it did not work. The company ran six placebo-controlled trials in about 900 adults, mostly as a daily pill. The largest, the 24-week OPTIONS trial with 536 enrolled, found no significant weight loss versus placebo, and in February 2007 the company ended development for obesity. A 300-person 12-week trial reported only tiny differences, around 0.2 kg per week on the best dose versus 0.07 kg on placebo, in a conference abstract that was never published in full. The safety data are reassuring on the narrow points measured: no rise in IGF-1 and no antibodies. No human study has tested the injected form that clinics sell.
AOD-9604 is not an approved drug anywhere. The FDA put it on its list of compounding substances with significant safety concerns in 2023, and in December 2024 an FDA advisory committee voted 12 to 0 against allowing it in compounded drugs. WADA bans it by name. Claims that it repairs cartilage rest on one published rabbit study.
What it binds to, and what happens inside the body after that, step by step.
In rodent fat tissue and in isolated human fat tissue, AOD-9604 increased fat breakdown (lipolysis) and reduced fat building (lipogenesis), mimicking one action of growth hormone. Unlike growth hormone, it did not bind the growth hormone receptor, did not make cells multiply and did not cause insulin resistance in rats. Mouse work linked its effect to higher beta-3 adrenergic receptor expression in fat, but the exact target is not defined.
Human results and animal results are kept apart below. A result in rats tells you a mechanism is plausible. It does not tell you what happens in a person.
Grade B reflects that randomized human trials exist, not that they were positive. Six company-run placebo-controlled trials in about 900 adults found no clinically meaningful weight loss, and the decisive 24-week trial was never published in a journal. The fat-burning and cartilage effects come from rodent and rabbit studies; there are no human data at all for the injected form sold today.
536 enrolled (502 randomized) adults with BMI 30 to 45, oral 0.25 to 1 mg daily, 24 weeks
No significant weight loss versus placebo at 12 or 24 weeks; development for obesity was terminated.
Read the study300 adults with obesity, oral 1 to 30 mg daily
Best dose (1 mg) lost about 0.22 kg per week versus 0.07 kg on placebo; full results never published.
Read the studyObese (ob/ob) and lean mice, 14 days
Reduced weight gain and raised fat oxidation without raising blood sugar; did not bind the GH receptor.
Read the studyObese mice for 30 days, plus isolated human fat tissue
Lower weight gain from day 16 with no change in food intake; more lipolysis and less lipogenesis in human fat tissue in a dish.
Read the study32 rabbits with chemically induced knee osteoarthritis
Weekly knee injections lowered cartilage damage scores, more so with hyaluronic acid; no human data exist for joints.
Read the studyThese are questions the published research has not answered.
No product containing AOD-9604 is approved as a medicine by the FDA.
Development as an obesity drug was terminated in February 2007 after the phase 2b OPTIONS trial. In 2012 the company announced a self-affirmed, conditional GRAS (food ingredient) determination by its own expert panel for up to 1 mg per day orally; this was not an FDA review and is not drug approval. WADA 2026 Prohibited List names AOD-9604 under S2.2.3 (growth hormone fragments), banned in and out of competition.
No human half-life has been published for AOD-9604, so we do not draw a clearance curve. Half-lives quoted online for it are usually estimates from animal data.
This table records the doses that trials and approved labels used, with the source for each row. It is a record of research, not a recommendation, and it is open to free members.
Which symptoms are expected and which mean stop and get help: side effects and red flags.
Tap a claim to see what the studies found.
It has never been approved as a drug. The 2012 GRAS claim was a self-affirmed, conditional food-ingredient determination by a company-hired panel for 1 mg a day orally, not an FDA review.
It raised fat breakdown in rodents and lab dishes, but six human trials found no meaningful weight loss, and the 536-person trial failed outright.
Company trials measured IGF-1 and found no change versus placebo, and lab work showed it does not bind the growth hormone receptor.
The evidence is one published rabbit study using knee injections. No human study exists.
They are nearly identical and sold interchangeably. AOD-9604 is the 177-191 piece with a tyrosine added at the front; neither has human evidence for fat loss.
These pairings come up often. Almost none have been tested together in a trial, and the evidence note on each says so plainly.
No approved product. Vendor safety sheets cited by FDA list freezer storage (about -18 C) in sealed containers away from moisture; no validated stability data exist.
No published stability data for any reconstituted form.
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