AOD-9604 10mg

What AOD-9604 actually is

AOD-9604 is a synthetic C-terminal fragment of human growth hormone, usually described as hGH(177–191) with an extra tyrosine added at the N-terminus. That added residue is why the compound is also labelled hGH 176–191, or simply “GH fragment” — three names for the same 16-residue peptide.

It was developed by Metabolic Pharmaceuticals in Australia as an anti-obesity drug candidate. The design premise was specific: isolate the region of growth hormone responsible for lipolytic and antilipogenic signalling, and leave behind the parts that drive growth-hormone receptor activation and systemic IGF-1 exposure.

What the preclinical record shows

The most-cited study is Ng and colleagues in Hormone Research (2000), in obese Zucker rats. An oral dose of 500 µg/kg daily for 19 days reduced body-weight gain by more than half against control — 15.8 g versus 35.6 g — and adipose tissue from treated animals showed increased lipolytic activity.

The finding that drew attention was what did not happen. Measured by euglycaemic clamp, chronic AOD-9604 treatment showed no adverse effect on insulin sensitivity, which is the opposite of what chronic intact hGH does in the same model.

Later work in obese mice reported the same direction of effect from chronic subcutaneous administration: increased fat oxidation, increased markers of lipolysis, attenuated weight gain. In vitro, the fragment showed no growth-hormone receptor binding and no receptor-mediated proliferative activity, and it did not induce hyperglycaemia.

Where the human data stops

This is the part most product pages leave out. As an oral anti-obesity candidate, AOD-9604 went into a 24-week human study enrolling 534 participants, 502 of them randomised. It failed to demonstrate a significant benefit on the primary weight-loss endpoint.

It is also worth being precise about the evidence base itself: the conclusions about clinical efficacy rest primarily on sponsor-reported phase 2 programme outcomes rather than peer-reviewed randomised efficacy trials. There are no robust human data supporting meaningful visceral-fat reduction or broader metabolic benefit, and extrapolations to body-recomposition or performance outcomes are speculative.

Claims about joint repair, cartilage or tissue regeneration sit on animal work — principally an intra-articular rabbit osteoarthritis model, with and without hyaluronic acid. There is no convincing human clinical evidence in those indications.

Regulatory status

AOD-9604 is not approved by any major regulatory agency for any indication. It appears on the FDA’s Category 2 Bulk Drug Substances list. It is sold here strictly as a laboratory reference material.

Handling, storage and reconstitution

Supplied as a lyophilized powder under vacuum seal. Store the sealed vial at −20 °C, protected from light. Brief room-temperature exposure during shipping does not compromise a lyophilized peptide — the dry cake is stable well beyond transit times.

Reconstitute with bacteriostatic water, directing the stream against the glass wall rather than onto the cake, and swirl rather than shake. Once in solution, store at 2–8 °C and use within the working window for your protocol. Our reconstitution calculator will work out the volume for any target concentration.

Verification

Every lot is third-party tested by HPLC for purity and by mass spectrometry for identity. The certificate of analysis for your lot is available on the COA page. If you are not sure how to read one, we wrote a guide to interpreting a peptide COA.

Frequently asked questions