What the literature reports on AOD-9604 dosage: the 1–30 mg oral trial doses, rodent mg/kg protocols, the absent injectable half-life, and reconstitution math for a 2.5 mg vial.
AOD-9604 — the code stands for "anti-obesity drug" — is a synthetic sixteen-amino-acid peptide corresponding to residues 177–191 of human growth hormone with a tyrosine added at the N-terminus, about 1,815 Da, with one disulfide bridge. It was the lead compound of Metabolic Pharmaceuticals, which took it through Phase 1 and Phase 2 obesity trials as an oral tablet before development stopped for lack of efficacy. That gives it something most research peptides lack: a real human dose range. But the range is oral, and the injectable material sold for research has never been through a controlled human study.
This page collects what the literature reports, the reconstitution arithmetic for the 2.5 mg vial sold here, and why the oral figures do not convert to an injectable one. It is a research reference beside the AOD-9604 profile and the AOD-9604 research overview; it is not a protocol and not advice.
Between roughly 2001 and 2007 Metabolic Pharmaceuticals ran six clinical trials of AOD-9604. The peptide was an oral tablet given once daily at doses reported from 1 mg to 30 mg, for up to twelve weeks. The early Phase 2 studies reported modest weight differences from placebo with no dose–response relationship — higher doses added nothing — so the twelve-week Phase 2b trial in about three hundred obese adults concentrated on 1 mg daily. It did not meet its primary weight-loss endpoint and the programme was discontinued.
The tolerability data from all six trials were pooled by Stier, Vos and Kenley, Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism (2013): roughly nine hundred participants, adverse events comparable to placebo, no effect on glucose, insulin or IGF-1, and no antibody formation. That is the whole of the controlled human record, and two things follow. The only dose at which AOD-9604 has been adequately tested in people is 1 mg by mouth, and at that dose it did not do what it was designed to do. And the tablet's bioavailability was described by the company as sufficient for detection but never published in detail, so the oral milligram figure does not describe a known systemic exposure.
A 2014 GRAS self-affirmation for AOD-9604 in foods at low oral doses is sometimes cited as a dosing benchmark. It was a company-panel determination, not an FDA approval, and concerned oral food use only.
The preclinical work comes from Frank Ng's group at Monash University and from the company. Ng's group identified the anti-lipogenic activity of residues 177–191 (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology International, 1993) and established the lipolytic-domain hypothesis with the predecessor fragment AOD9401 (Hormone Research, 2000). Heffernan and colleagues, Endocrinology (2001), then dosed obese mice and β3-adrenergic-receptor knockout mice chronically with AOD-9604 and reported reduced fat mass and increased fat oxidation, preserved in the knockouts; a companion paper in the International Journal of Obesity (2001) compared the fragment against intact growth hormone.
Across these protocols AOD-9604 was given once daily, by intraperitoneal injection or oral gavage, at weight-based amounts in the region of 0.25 to 2 mg/kg per day for two to three weeks. Glucose tolerance was unaffected and IGF-1 did not rise. Separately, Kwon and Park (Annals of Clinical and Laboratory Science, 2015) injected AOD-9604 weekly into the knee joint in a rabbit osteoarthritis model — a local protocol from one small study, not a systemic dose.
There is no published human pharmacokinetic study of injected AOD-9604. What exists is rapid clearance in rodents, as expected for a small unmodified peptide, and low oral exposure in the trials. Any half-life figure attached to research-grade material online is not derived from measurement, which is why this page does not link a half-life calculator for the compound.
Cadence is the one parameter with consistent support: once daily in every human trial and in the chronic rodent protocols. The rabbit study's weekly schedule reflects intra-articular dosing and says nothing about systemic cadence.
Concentration equals peptide mass divided by diluent volume, independent of any dosing question. For the AOD-9604 2.5MG vial:
The 2.5 mg vial is half the mass of the 5 mg HGH Fragment 176-191 vial sold beside it, so the same diluent gives half the concentration; the two products are the same sequence and the arithmetic is the only difference. The dosing-math guide works through the mg → µg → syringe-unit conversions, the dosage calculator does the division automatically, and the vial planner turns a concentration into a count of measurements per vial.
The lyophilised powder contains a disulfide bridge. Diluent goes slowly down the vial wall, the vial is swirled rather than shaken, and the solution is kept refrigerated and used within weeks. Reconstitution 101 shows the procedure.
The gap between the literature and a research vial is not a unit conversion. The human figures are oral, with unpublished bioavailability, and the rodent figures are intraperitoneal or oral per kilogram of mouse; research-grade material is used subcutaneously, a route with no published dose–response study in people. AOD-9604 does not bind the growth hormone receptor with measurable affinity and no defined target has been identified, so there is no exposure–response relationship to anchor a dose to. And the one adequately sized human trial was negative, so even the 1 mg oral figure is a dose at which nothing was demonstrated. Anyone quoting an injectable AOD-9604 dose is extrapolating, not citing.
The regulatory position follows. AOD-9604 has no Health Canada market authorisation or DIN and is sold in Canada for research use only; in September 2023 the U.S. FDA placed it in category 2 for section 503A compounding; and WADA names AOD-9604 under S2, so it is prohibited for tested athletes at all times.
What doses were used in the human trials? Oral tablets from 1 mg to 30 mg once daily for up to twelve weeks. Higher doses showed no dose–response advantage, so the Phase 2b trial in about three hundred obese adults used 1 mg daily; it did not meet its primary endpoint.
What is the half-life of AOD-9604? Unknown for the injectable form. No human pharmacokinetic study of injected AOD-9604 has been published; oral exposure was low and rodent clearance is rapid. Figures circulated online are not derived from published data.
How is a 2.5 mg vial reconstituted? Mass divided by diluent gives concentration: 2.5 mg in 1 mL of bacteriostatic water is 2.5 mg/mL, so 10 units on a U-100 syringe hold 250 µg; 2.5 mg in 2 mL is 1.25 mg/mL, so 10 units hold 125 µg.
Does the GRAS self-affirmation establish a safe dose? No. It was a company-panel determination for low oral doses in foods, not an FDA approval, and it does not concern injected material.
Is this medical advice? No. AOD-9604 is a research-grade material for laboratory use only, not for human or veterinary use. Every number here describes what appeared in a published study; none of it is a protocol, a recommendation or a substitute for a licensed physician.
