FreePeptideCalc

AOD-9604 Dosage Calculator and Dosing Chart

A growth hormone fragment whose large human obesity trial was actually run — and failed its primary endpoint. Development stopped in 2007.

Written by , who builds and maintains this site and is not a clinician. Every figure links to its primary source.

Not approved

Not approved; advisory committee voted against it

Added to 503A Category 2 on 29 September 2023. On 4 December 2024 the Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee reviewed AOD-9604 for obesity and voted against adding it to the 503A bulks list. Removed from Category 2 on 22 April 2026 when nominations were withdrawn, and not reconsidered in July 2026.

No approved human dose exists for this compound in any country. The figures below are the doses used in named published studies, reproduced for reference only. Doses given to rats or mice do not convert to a human dose. The FDA has stated that labelling a product “research use only” or “not for human consumption” does not change its legal status when the seller's own marketing shows it is intended for people.

Anti-doping: Prohibited. WADA stated in 2013 that AOD-9604 falls into class S0 as a substance with no approval from any governmental regulatory health authority for human therapeutic use. Note that it does not trigger the WADA growth hormone isoform immunoassay — being undetectable on one assay is not the same as being permitted.

Calculator inputs

Set up your vial

Enter the label, dilution and dose. The result updates as you type.

Syringe volume
Syringe volume
AOD-9604 in the vial
AOD-9604 in the vial
Vials sold online are commonly 2–5 mg
Bacteriostatic water to add
Bacteriostatic water to add
Dose per injection
Dose per injection
No approved human dose exists for this compound. The dose shown is only a calculator input, not a recommendation or starting point.
More optionsReverse calculation, schedule and cost

Enter the bacteriostatic water you added and get the volume to draw.

Draw to
12units(0.12 mL)
12 units01020304050Drag the plunger, or focus it and use the arrow keys
Draw to 12 units on a 50-unit U-100 syringe.
Concentration
2500 mcg/mL
Water added
2 mL
Doses in vial
16
How the concentration is calculated

This divides the peptide by the water you add. The powder occupies a little volume of its own, which is negligible on a typical vial but not on one with a heavy bulking agent. When a product label states a concentration, use the label’s number.

Key facts

Molecular weight
1,815.1 DaA 16-amino-acid synthetic fragment of human growth hormone (residues 177–191) with an added N-terminal tyrosine and a disulfide bond.
Half-life
Not published. No accessible human pharmacokinetic study reports one, so any specific figure quoted elsewhere has no primary source behind it.
Also sold as
hGH fragment 176-191

Doses used in published studies

These are reproduced for reference. They are not recommendations, and an animal dose in mg/kg does not convert to a human dose.

humanintravenous, single doses separated by 7-day washouts

25 to 400 µg/kg body weight

METAOD001, the phase 1 first-in-human study, in 15 healthy men (14 completed). A second study, METAOD002, gave 25, 50 and 100 µg/kg intravenously to 23 obese men with a BMI of 35 or above. These are the only injected human exposures in the published record.

humanoral capsules, single doses and 7 days of daily dosing

9, 27 and 54 mg

METAOD003 gave single doses to 17 obese men (15 completed) with two-week washouts; METAOD004 gave the same three dose levels daily for 7 days to 36 obese men with a BMI of 30 or above.

humanoral capsules, once daily for 12 weeks

1, 5, 10, 20 or 30 mg

METAOD005, a phase 2b trial in 300 obese adults (54% male), after a two-week run-in. No peer-reviewed efficacy result for this trial is retrievable — the published paper covers safety and tolerability only.

humanoral tablets, once daily for 24 weeks

0.25 mg, 0.5 mg or 1 mg

METAOD006, a phase 2b trial in 502 obese adults with a BMI of 30–45, with a four-week run-in and four-week follow-up. Note the ceiling: the highest dose tested here is one-thirtieth of the highest dose tested in the 12-week trial that preceded it.

mouseintraperitoneal and implanted mini-osmotic pump, 14 days

Not stated in the retrievable record — both abstracts omit the dose and the full texts are paywalled

Heffernan et al. published two 2001 mouse studies. In Endocrinology, 14 days of chronic intraperitoneal AOD9604 reduced body weight and body fat in obese mice and raised β3-adrenoceptor RNA expression, while the same treatment failed to change body weight in β3-AR knock-out mice. In the International Journal of Obesity, AOD9604 delivered by mini-osmotic pump to obese (ob/ob) and lean C57BL/6J mice reduced body weight gain and increased fat oxidation and plasma glycerol without the hyperglycaemia that human GH caused in the same experiment. Microgram-per-kilogram figures for these studies circulate widely; we could not open a document that states one, so none is reproduced here.

How good is the evidence?

The rare case where the human trials were actually run — six of them, through phase 2b, in more than 850 people between them — and the compound still went nowhere. The published record of that programme is a safety and tolerability paper covering all six trials, which is why the doses listed above are unusually well documented for a compound of this kind. What is missing is the other half: no peer-reviewed efficacy report for either phase 2b trial is retrievable, so weight-loss figures quoted elsewhere trace to sponsor announcements rather than to a primary publication. Two facts do not need one. The sponsor dropped the top dose from 30 mg daily in the 12-week trial to 1 mg daily in the 24-week trial that followed, and then the programme stopped. In December 2024 the FDA's own advisory committee voted against adding AOD-9604 to the 503A bulks list.

Common questions

Sources

Every number on this page comes from one of the documents below. Where no reliable source exists, the page says so instead of filling the gap.

  1. RegulatorFDA· 2026-05-14
    Bulk Drug Substances Nominated for Use in Compounding Under Section 503A
  2. RegulatorFDA· 2024-12-04
    PCAC briefing document — substance descriptions and 503A statutory conditions
  3. RegulatorFDA
    Certain Bulk Drug Substances for Use in Compounding May Present Significant Safety Risks
  4. Published studyEndocrinology· 2001
    Heffernan M et al. The effects of human GH and its lipolytic fragment AOD9604 on lipid metabolism
  5. Published studyInternational Journal of Obesity 2001;25(10):1442–9· 2001-10
    Heffernan MA, Thorburn AW, Fam B, et al. Increase of fat oxidation and weight loss in obese mice caused by chronic treatment with human growth hormone or a modified C-terminal fragment
  6. Published studyJournal of Endocrinology and Metabolism 2013;3(1-2):7–15· 2013
    Stier H, Vos E, Kenley D. Safety and Tolerability of the Hexadecapeptide AOD9604 in Humans (trials METAOD001–METAOD006)
  7. RegulatorWorld Anti-Doping Agency· 2026
    WADA 2026 Prohibited List
  8. ReferenceNIH / National Center for Biotechnology Information
    PubChem compound records (molecular weights and formulae)