A synthetic C-terminal growth-hormone fragment developed for obesity research.
The 250 mcg daily calculator row is an unofficial recorded preset, not the regimen validated by the failed obesity program. This is educational source context, not a protocol or recommendation.
There is no regulator-approved starting dose for this research use. A low-looking number is not automatically safe.
This is the range represented in the in-app protocol library. It describes the source record; it does not validate the regimen.
Higher exposure is not established as more effective. Human pharmacokinetic and long-term safety data may be absent.
Drug amount and device markings are different quantities. The calculator converts mass into volume, syringe units, or pen clicks.
The cadence represented by the recorded calculator presets.
Published experiments may use a different route, formulation, timing, or population and should not be treated as interchangeable.
No single schedule has been validated across products or research contexts.
Human studies tested multiple IV and oral designs; the largest obesity trial did not meet its efficacy endpoint.
Keep cold, dry, and protected from light according to the manufacturer certificate or validated lab SOP.
Use sterile technique, refrigerate as validated, and avoid repeated freeze-thaw cycles.
Record lot, concentration, preparation date, and the identity/purity documentation used by the lab.
What published studies and recent community write-ups report about amounts, timing and course length. 7 clinical, 2 preclinical and 4 community-reported rows, each linked to its source. These are descriptions of what others report, not instructions, and nothing here is medical advice.
| Context | Dose | Frequency | Route | Course | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clinical7 rows | |||||
| Phase 1 intravenous dose escalation (METAOD001)15 healthy adult men with a BMI between 24 and 30 | 25 to 400 mcg/kg | Three single doses plus placebo per person, each separated by a 7-day washout | Intravenous infusion over 20 minutes | Single doses only7 days between doses | Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism2013 |
| Twelve of 15 men reported adverse events, most commonly headache, with no serious events and no clinically significant changes in vital signs, laboratory values or ECGs. Growth hormone was given to the same men as a positive control, and no glycerol, glucose or IGF-1 trend separated AOD-9604 from placebo or from growth hormone. | |||||
| Intravenous dosing in obese men (METAOD002)23 obese men aged 19 to 50 with a BMI of 35 or more | 25, 50 and 100 mcg/kg | Four single doses per person in a Latin square design, 7 days apart | Intravenous infusion over 20 minutes | Single doses only7-day washout between doses | Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism2013 |
| Mild or moderate headache was reported by 16 of 23 participants and five reported euphoria only while on active drug. One severe event, a feeling of chest tightness, was judged possibly related to treatment; glucose and IGF-1 did not change relative to placebo. | |||||
| Oral capsules, single and 7-day dosing (METAOD003 and METAOD004)17 obese men for the single-dose study and 36 obese men for the 7-day study | 9, 27 or 54 mg | Once daily | Oral capsules | Single doses two weeks apart, then 7 consecutive days2-week washout in the single-dose study | Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism2013 |
| Headache and digestive complaints were the most common events, with two serious events in the single-dose study, one of which, diarrhea at 54 mg, was judged possibly related. Across 7 days of dosing, IGF-1, fasting glucose, insulin and every oral glucose tolerance test measure stayed unchanged. | |||||
| 12-week oral obesity trial (METAOD005)300 obese adults aged 30 to 65 with a BMI of 35 or more, at 5 Australian hospitals | 1, 5, 10, 20 or 30 mg (50 people per group) | Once daily | Oral capsules | 12 weeks of dosing after a 2-week placebo run-inNone | US Food and Drug Administration2024 |
| Weight fell faster on every dose than on placebo but without a normal dose response: 0.22 kg per week at 1 mg, 0.15 kg per week at 30 mg and 0.07 kg per week on placebo. The FDA review notes the differences were small and of unclear therapeutic meaning, the company itself confirmed the 1 mg comparison did not reach statistical significance on the primary analysis, and the efficacy results were only ever presented as a conference abstract. | |||||
| Pivotal 24-week OPTIONS trial (METAOD006)536 adults with obesity enrolled and 502 randomized, aged 18 to 65 with a BMI of 30 to 45, at 16 Australian centers | 0.25, 0.5 or 1 mg | Once daily | Oral tablets | 24 weeks after a 4-week placebo run-in, with a 4-week follow-upNone | US Food and Drug Administration2024 |
| Everyone also followed a dietitian-supervised diet and exercise program, and the trial was powered to detect 1.8 kg of weight loss against placebo. Weight loss at both 12 and 24 weeks was too small to reach significance, the company announced on 21 February 2007 that the results did not support commercial viability and ended obesity development, and the study was never published. | |||||
| Phase 2a nerve pain trial as LAT888153 adults with neuropathic pain from shingles or diabetic peripheral neuropathy | 30 mg per capsule, 60 mg per day in total | Twice daily, morning and evening | Oral capsules | Two 4-week treatment periods in a crossover design, separated by a washout and a second baseline week14 to 21 days of washout between the two periods | ClinicalTrials.gov2019 |
| Lateral Pharma renamed the molecule LAT8881 and tested it for pain rather than weight. Pain scores fell 0.87 points on drug and 0.74 on placebo on an 11-point scale, a difference that was not significant, and the 30% responder rates were 20 of 50 against 19 of 50. | |||||
| Intravenous ascending dose study as LAT888126 participants: healthy volunteers in part A, then up to 20 adults with lumbar radicular pain in part B | 0.8, 1.2 and 1.8 mg/kg in part A; the maximum tolerated dose in part B | Single infusions on separate days in part A; one infusion on each of two consecutive days in part B | Intravenous infusion over 5 minutes | Single dosesCrossover with placebo in part B | ClinicalTrials.gov2022 |
| This 2022 to 2023 study is the only registered intravenous work on the molecule since the original obesity program and it reached a far higher per-kilogram dose than the 25 to 400 mcg/kg used in 2001. The registry record lists the study as completed without posted efficacy results. | |||||
| Preclinical2 rows | |||||
| Animal pain model screeningRodent models of post-surgical pain, chemotherapy neuropathy, thermal hyperalgesia, reserpine myalgia, the formalin test, diabetic neuropathy and chemically induced osteoarthritis | 5 mg/kg | Per the individual model protocol | Oral | Varies by modelNot applicable | Lateral Pharma (ClinicalTrials.gov document archive)2019 |
| The sponsor's trial protocol reports clear activity in every model tested except the osteoarthritis model, where only a weak effect was seen. This is the preclinical basis for the pain program, and it did not translate into a measurable difference in the human trial that followed. | |||||
| Animal pharmacokinetics and repeat-dose toxicologyAdult female pigs, rats dosed orally for 13 weeks and cynomolgus monkeys dosed orally for 9 months | 400 mcg/kg intravenously and 2 mg/kg orally in pigs; 0.5, 10 and 50 mg/kg per day in the 9-month monkey study | Single doses in the pig study, daily in the toxicology studies | Intravenous and oral | 13 weeks in rats, 9 months in monkeysNot applicable | US Food and Drug Administration2024 |
| In pigs the intravenous half-life was about 3 minutes, and the oral data were so variable that the calculated bioavailability came out above 100%, which the authors attributed to noise. The FDA reviewers flagged signals pointing to effects on bone health in the 13-week rat study, possible liver changes in the monkeys and equivocal mutagenic signals, and concluded the nonclinical package was too limited to support any of the proposed routes. | |||||
| Community-reported4 rows | |||||
| Community subcutaneous protocol | 300 mcg | Once daily | Subcutaneous, abdomen or thigh, in the morning on an empty stomach 30 to 60 minutes before food or exercise | 12 weeks4 weeks off | Community resource2026 |
| A 2026 guide reports this as the protocol that settled in during the compounding era and says plainly that no clinical trial validated it, that the dose was extrapolated from the oral trial arms with an assumed bioavailability correction, and that the 12 weeks on and 4 weeks off pattern has no rigorous basis. It lists the plasma half-life as roughly 30 minutes. | |||||
| Community range with reconstitution math | 300 mcg as the default, 300-500 mcg as the working range | Once daily, fasted in the morning | Subcutaneous | 12 weeks, with 6-8 weeks given as the minimum4-8 weeks off, with two 12-week cycles a year described as a common structure | Community resource2026 |
| This 2026 guide gives the arithmetic for a 5 mg vial in 2.5 mL of bacteriostatic water, where 300 mcg is 15 units on an insulin syringe, and argues for fasted injection on the grounds that insulin blunts lipolysis. The 12-week length is presented as mirroring the original trial duration rather than as a tested optimum. | |||||
| Community split-dose option | 250-500 mcg per day; 150 mcg morning plus 150 mcg evening as a split alternative | Once or twice daily | Subcutaneous, fasted | 12 weeksNot specified | Community resource2026 |
| A 2026 guide that leads with the phase 2b failure presents 250 to 500 mcg daily as the convergent community protocol and states that the 12-week length is inherited from the original oral trials rather than derived from any dose-response curve. It notes the six human trials established safety but that the efficacy signal in obese adults was inconsistent. | |||||
| Route comparison table from a protocol wiki | 250-300 mcg per day subcutaneously; 1 mg per day orally as the trial dose | Once daily | Subcutaneous for community use; oral in every human trial | 4-12 weeks per cycleNot specified | Community resource2026 |
| This page puts the two routes side by side and states that subcutaneous dosing was never the route used in any human trial and that no published human data exist for it. It labels the subcutaneous figures as derived from anecdote rather than from controlled dose-finding work. | |||||
Community protocols start and stay at a flat 300 mcg injected subcutaneously each morning before food, with no titration described. The original trials used oral capsules and tablets at doses from 0.25 mg to 30 mg a day, so nothing in the trial record corresponds to this starting point.
Guides describe the same dose held to week 12, with 6 to 8 weeks framed as the minimum worth running and 300 to 500 mcg as the band most people settle in. The 12-week figure is openly described as borrowed from the trial duration rather than from any measured plateau.
A 4 to 8 week off period is the convention, with two cycles a year described as a common annual pattern. No trial tested a break; the obesity studies dosed continuously for 12 or 24 weeks with a placebo run-in before and a short follow-up after.
The 12-week oral trial in 300 obese adults found weight falling faster on every dose than on placebo but with an inverted dose response and a primary comparison that missed significance. IGF-1 did not change in any group and no antibodies against the peptide were detected at 4, 8 or 12 weeks.
The larger 24-week trial added a supervised diet and exercise program and tested 0.25, 0.5 and 1 mg a day in 502 randomized adults. Weight loss against placebo at both 12 and 24 weeks was too small to reach significance, and obesity development stopped in February 2007.
Plus 4 community resources (dosing guides, forum threads and vendor write-ups), reported above but not linked.
AOD-9604 is a 16-amino-acid peptide taken from the tail end of human growth hormone, residues 177 to 191, with a tyrosine added at the front to stabilize it and a disulfide bond closing a loop between its two cysteines. It came out of Monash University in Melbourne and was developed by Metabolic Pharmaceuticals as an oral obesity tablet across six trials in roughly 900 people between 2001 and 2006, none of which showed a convincing weight-loss effect. The pivotal 24-week study missed its primary endpoint and the company ended obesity development in February 2007; the molecule was later renamed LAT8881 by Lateral Pharma and tested for nerve pain, where it again failed to separate from placebo. It is approved nowhere, is prohibited by WADA, and an FDA advisory committee voted in December 2024 against adding it to the list of substances allowed in pharmacy compounding.
These themes describe recurring questions in published research. They are not claims of effectiveness or recommendations for use.
AOD9604 advanced through several randomized clinical studies.
Preclinical work explored lipolysis without full-length GH signaling.
Six trials were summarized for glucose, IGF-1, immunogenicity, and adverse events.
The large 24-week phase 2b trial failed its primary weight-loss endpoint.
Study models remain visible so laboratory and animal findings are not mistaken for established human outcomes.
Published pooled safety reporting found no GH-like IGF-1 or glucose signal over the studied periods.
Development for obesity stopped after no significant weight-loss benefit in the larger 24-week study.
Rodent findings motivated clinical development but did not translate into pivotal efficacy.
These amount records are independent from vial strength, reconstitution volume and measuring device. A recorded source is not the same as study backing, and these values are not recommendations.
Sequence, synonyms and registry identifiers as recorded in PubChem, the National Library of Medicine's open chemistry database. Formula, mass and CAS number are summarized at the top of the page.
Tyr-Leu-Arg-Ile-Val-Gln-Cys-Arg-Ser-Val-Glu-Gly-Ser-Cys-Gly-Phe (disulfide bond between the cysteines at positions 7 and 14)
AOD 9604, LAT8881, Tyr-hGH(177-191), hGH fragment 177-191, Tyr-somatotropin (177-191), UNII 7UP768IP4M, sh-Oligopeptide-74, AOD-9064
GVIYUKXRXPXMQM-BPXGDYAESA-N
Tyr-hGH177-191 analogue designed to separate lipolytic from GH/IGF-1 effects
(2S)-2-[[2-[[(4R,7S,13S,16S,19S,22S,25R)-25-[[(2S)-5-amino-2-[[(2S)-2-[[(2S,3S)-2-[[(2S)-2-[[(2S)-2-[[(2S)-2-amino-3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)propanoyl]amino]-4-methylpentanoyl]amino]-5-carbamimidamidopentanoyl]amino]-3-methylpentanoyl]amino]-3-methylbutanoyl]amino]-5-oxopentanoyl]amino]-22-(3-carbamimidamidopropyl)-13-(2-carboxyethyl)-7,19-bis(hydroxymethyl)-6,9,12,15,18,21,24-heptaoxo-16-propan-2-yl-1,2-dithia-5,8,11,14,17,20,23-heptazacyclohexacosane-4-carbonyl]amino]acetyl]amino]-3-phenylpropanoic acid
2 curated references, each with its journal, year and study model, plus 4 community resources reported but not linked.