Australian scientists cut a short piece from the end of the growth hormone molecule and found it still affected fat in mice. A tablet version went through human trials in the 2000s but was dropped in 2007. This site explains what the compound is, what the trials showed and where it stands today.
Human growth hormone is a large protein of 191 amino acids, and it does many jobs at once: it drives growth, affects blood sugar and helps release stored fat. In the early 1990s a team led by Frank Ng at Monash University in Melbourne asked whether the fat-related effect could be separated from the rest. They focused on the last 15 amino acids of the hormone, and AOD-9604 is that short stretch with one extra amino acid, tyrosine, added at the front.
In mice and rats the fragment slowed fat build-up without the effects on growth or blood sugar seen with the full hormone. A Melbourne company, Metabolic Pharmaceuticals, turned it into a once-daily tablet and tested it in several hundred volunteers.
The largest trial did not show useful weight loss, and the obesity programme ended. Since then AOD-9604 has turned up in sport and in online markets, while regulators have kept their distance. The pages below go through each part of that story.
This website does not give medical advice, and research-grade AOD-9604 is not made for human use. Questions about weight, metabolism or joints are best discussed with a doctor.
| What it is | A modified fragment of human growth hormone (amino acids 177 to 191, plus a tyrosine at the start) |
| Length | 16 amino acids, sometimes called a hexadecapeptide |
| Molar mass | About 1,815 g/mol |
| Developed by | Monash University and Metabolic Pharmaceuticals, Melbourne, Australia |
| Tested as | An oral once-daily tablet for obesity, in trials from 2001 to 2007 |
| Outcome | No significant weight loss versus placebo in the main 24-week trial |
| Status | Not approved anywhere; prohibited at all times under WADA rules |
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