AOD-9604

Definition

AOD-9604 is a synthetic fragment of human growth hormone corresponding to the C-terminal region of the molecule, prepared with an added tyrosine residue. It was developed on the hypothesis that the lipolytic activity of growth hormone could be separated from its effects on growth and glucose metabolism ^[1].

It reached commercial development as an anti-obesity candidate and is sold today as a fat-loss peptide. What separates it from most compounds in this index is that a sponsor once ran a program on it; what it shares with them is that almost none of that program reached the published literature.

Evidence

The foundational work is animal and mechanistic. A 2000 report described metabolic studies of the synthetic lipolytic domain in obese rodent models ^[1], and the compound subsequently became familiar to anti-doping laboratories, which developed methods to detect it and characterized its in vitro metabolism ^[2].

The published human record is empty in an unusual way. Across four name variants PubMed returns 27 indexed records in total, of which 21 carry the Humans subject heading, 0 the clinical-trial publication type, and 0 the randomized-controlled-trial type ^[3]. Twenty-seven records is small enough to read in full, and it was read in full: the set consists of rodent and cell work, doping-detection analytical chemistry, obesity-pipeline review articles, and three entries in a serial feature that lists development programs rather than reporting them. No primary report of a human trial of this compound is indexed ^[3].

The Humans heading on twenty-one of twenty-seven records is the reason this census had to be read rather than counted. It marks human tissue, human assays, and human doping-control samples. It does not mark a person who received the compound in a study whose results were published.

Lawful access

There is no lawful United States supply route. On December 4, 2024 the Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee voted 0 in favor, 12 against, and 0 abstaining on whether AOD-9604 (free base) and AOD-9604 acetate should be placed on the section 503A bulks list; FDA had proposed that neither be included, and the committee agreed by 12 votes to 0 to decide both substances in one vote. The use FDA evaluated was obesity ^[4].

The nomination was subsequently withdrawn. AOD-9604 now appears in FDA's table of substances nominated but withdrawn, and in no category of the 503A bulks list published on May 14, 2026 ^[5][6]. FDA's published finding is that compounded drugs containing it may pose a significant risk for immunogenicity, that the agency has identified no or only limited safety-related information, and that it has identified serious adverse events that may be associated with the substance, though causality is not clear ^[6].

In April 2020 FDA also warned a compounding pharmacy that products it compounded using AOD 9604 and twenty-one other substances were not eligible for the exemptions in section 503A(a) ^[7]. Material sold under this name is research-use-only chemical supply; the research-only page sets out what that position means.

Related molecules

AOD-9604 is filed with the growth factor fragments beside PEG-MGF, which shares the pattern precisely: a fragment of a growth-axis protein, sold for body composition, with more regulatory record than human evidence. Its committee history places it with CJC-1295, refused at the same December 2024 meeting; the nomination tracker files all three, and the human trial record prints this molecule's zero.

Elsewhere in this index