AOD-9604

AOD-9604 is sold online as a research chemical, is not FDA-approved for any use, and its own drug-development program was discontinued after a well-powered human trial failed to show it worked. This page describes what's known — not dosing or usage guidance, and not a recommendation to use it. Talk to a doctor before considering it.

AOD-9604 is a synthetic fragment corresponding to amino acids 176–191 of human growth hormone — the region researchers identified as responsible for HGH's fat-metabolizing (lipolytic) effects, developed in the 1990s at Monash University in an attempt to isolate that effect without HGH's growth-promoting, IGF-1-driving activity. It was developed and taken into clinical trials by the Australian company Metabolic Pharmaceuticals.

Unlike most Tier 3 compounds, AOD-9604 has actually been through real human obesity trials — and the most important one didn't work. A 12-week Phase IIa trial (300 participants) showed modest weight loss versus placebo (2.6 kg vs. 0.8 kg), which looked promising. But the follow-up Phase IIb trial — larger, longer, and better powered (536 participants over 24 weeks) — found no statistically significant weight-loss difference between AOD-9604 and placebo in any dose arm. Metabolic Pharmaceuticals terminated the obesity program in March 2007 as a direct result. That larger, controlled trial failing to replicate the smaller trial's promising result is the single most important data point on AOD-9604 — a much stronger and more direct negative signal than "no trials exist," which is the more common Tier 3 situation. The company later explored it for cartilage repair and osteoarthritis, an unrelated line of research with its own separate, much less developed evidence base.

Emirati Times — Lessons from a Discontinued AOD-9604 Research Peptide →

AOD-9604 has never been FDA-approved for any use, and its drug-development program was discontinued after a trial failure, not merely paused. Separately, its US compounding-pharmacy status was reviewed and rejected: after its bulk-substance nomination was withdrawn in September 2024, the FDA's Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee voted against recommending AOD-9604 for the compounding-permitted list at meetings in late 2024. It's sold today only as an unregulated research chemical.

FDA — Bulk Drug Substances Used in Compounding →

Emirati Times — Lessons from a Discontinued AOD-9604 Research Peptide