Reference table

The human trial record, by molecule

How many human clinical trials exist for each peptide in this index?

The answer

Far fewer than the counts suggest: four molecules return no trial-type record at all, and on several of the rest the records that are returned measure the body's own peptide rather than the compound anyone is selling.

By Peptide America · Publisher · Reviewed October 2026

A trial count is the fastest way to check a claim about a peptide, and it is also the fastest way to publish a false one. Search a name too narrowly and a real literature disappears; search it too broadly and an endogenous molecule's biology is counted as evidence for an injection. Both mistakes were made in the building of this table and both are recorded below rather than quietly corrected.

Every number here comes from a single dated run against the National Library of Medicine's E-utilities interface, through the publication-type filters named in the denominator note. Where a molecule's trial-type search returned a small enough set, every record in it was opened and judged; the final column reports what those records actually are, and on more than one molecule the answer is that they are not studies of the compound at all.

Denominator

Rows were measured between August 2026 and September 2026, each row in the month printed in its own Measured column against PubMed, using the union of the name variants listed for that molecule. The trial columns count records under "clinical trial"[Publication Type] and "randomized controlled trial"[Publication Type]. Those filters are proved live on every run before anything is written: on the most recent run, in September 2026, the control term "aspirin" returned 8,916 and 6,127 records under them. The invalid tag clinicaltrial[pt], which returns zero for every term in the database and has produced a false census in this repository before, returned 0 for that same control term. A deliberately invalid record identifier, 99999999, errored in the same run. Counts move as records are indexed; each row's Measured date is the date that row was true.

Rows are read from CENSUS_ROWS[].ranISO, CENSUS_ROWS[].variants, CENSUS_ROWS[].total, CENSUS_ROWS[].clinicalTrials, CENSUS_ROWS[].randomizedTrials, CENSUS_ROWS[].note — the committed output of scripts/trial-census.py, one dated PubMed run whose controls are stated in the denominator note above. No count on this page is typed by hand, and the script refuses to write anything at all if its controls misbehave.

MoleculeMeasuredIndexed recordsClinical-trial typeRandomized typeWhat those records are
DihexaAugust 20261800No record of either trial publication type. The indexed set is rodent cognition work and reviews of angiotensin IV analogues; the zero is the finding.
AOD-9604August 20262700No record of either trial publication type. All 27 indexed records were opened rather than counted: rodent and cell work, doping-detection analytical chemistry, obesity-pipeline review articles, and three entries in the serial feature "Gateways to clinical trials", which lists development programs rather than reporting them. No primary report of a human trial of this compound is indexed.
KPVAugust 202611300No record of either trial publication type; the zero is the finding and it is unchanged from the earlier run. The Humans-tagged records are receptor pharmacology, human cell lines, delivery vehicles and one ex vivo skin study; the heading marks human tissue, not a person given the compound. The total moved: this index's KPV monograph records 97 records for this identical string in August 2026 and the same string returns more on re-measurement the same day. The discrepancy is recorded rather than reconciled by editing either number.
BPC-157August 202623000The union returns no record of either trial publication type, so there is no hit to read; the zero is the finding.
TB-500August 20263110The single clinical-trial hit was opened and is a logistic-regression study of tuberculosis incidence, matched on the letters TB and unrelated to the peptide. Full-length thymosin beta-4 is a different molecule, counted separately on the monograph, and is not this row.
CJC-1295August 20263521Both trial-type records were opened. Both are 2006 reports from the same development program, measuring growth hormone and IGF-1 response to the analogue in healthy adults; neither reports a clinical outcome.
IpamorelinAugust 20265422Both clinical-trial records were opened: the 2014 postoperative ileus study and the 1999 pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic study in healthy volunteers.
SelankAugust 20268932All three trial-type records were opened. All three are anxiety-disorder studies published in Russian in a single journal between 2008 and 2015; there is no trial of this compound in the English-language literature.
GHK-CuAugust 202619733All three trial-type records were opened. One is conducted in rabbits. The two human records apply the copper tripeptide topically, to a venous stasis ulcer and to laser-resurfaced skin; neither administers the injectable form this index tracks.
NAD+August 20262241Scoped to the infused route actually sold, not to the coenzyme. All clinical-trial records were opened; three concern an esophageal cancer chemotherapy sequence, a topical psoriasis preparation, and a 1972 review of nicotinic acid in schizophrenia. The precursor literatures are counted separately on the monograph and are not this row.
SemaxAugust 202621641All four trial-type records were opened. All four are published in Russian in that country's journals between 1997 and 2018, in ischemic stroke, optic nerve disease, and motor neuron disease; there is no trial of this compound in the English-language literature.
Melanotan IIAugust 202636041All four trial-type records were opened. Every one is a study of erectile function or sexual desire, published between 1996 and 2000, and the set includes the 1996 pilot phase-I report. None studies the tanning use the compound is sold for.
ARA-290September 20269954All five trial-type records were opened and every one administers the peptide to people: three in sarcoidosis-associated small fiber neuropathy, one in type 2 diabetes with neuropathic symptoms, and one testing antidepressant properties in a human neuropsychological model. This row is the index's clearest case of a genuine human trial record attached to a substance with no lawful route.
MOTS-cAugust 202625454All five trial-type records were opened and not one administers the peptide. Every one measures a participant's own circulating MOTS-c after exercise, heat stress, metformin, or in a disease cohort. The count is a count of endogenous physiology, not of trials of the injected compound.
GlutathioneAugust 202620674Scoped to the cosmetic indication actually sold, not to the tripeptide, whose whole-molecule literature runs to six figures. All clinical-trial records were opened; six test an oral, buccal, or topical preparation and the seventh an injectable four-ingredient complex.
RetatrutideAugust 202617887All eight trial-type records were opened and all belong to the sponsor's development program, from the phase 1b dose-ascending study to a phase 3 trial. A substantial trial record and no approval are not in tension; they are what an investigational drug looks like.
ThymulinSeptember 202649885All eight trial-type records were opened and only one administers anything thymulin-related: a 1989 double-blind pilot of nonathymulin, a synthetic analogue, in multiple sclerosis. The other seven measure the body's own thymulin as a marker of zinc status — zinc supplementation in Crohn's disease, in Down's syndrome, in rural Gambian children, and as an adjunct to zidovudine — or track thymulin concentrations against melatonin and early-life exposures. Not one is a trial of the marketed peptide.
EpitalonAugust 202621596All nine trial-type records were opened, and only one names the synthetic tetrapeptide in its title. The others study epithalamin or an unnamed pineal-gland peptide preparation, which is a glandular extract rather than this molecule. The set spans 1979 to 2011, comes almost entirely from one country's literature, and several records are published in Russian.
Kisspeptin-10August 202632495All nine trial-type records were opened, and three do not belong to this molecule in people: one studies kisspeptin-54, one rhesus monkeys, and one female goats. The remaining six are human endocrine-probe studies that measure luteinizing hormone response; none reports a clinical outcome.
Mechano growth factorSeptember 20262361211All twelve trial-type records were opened and not one administers the peptide. Every one measures endogenous IGF-1Ec or mechano-growth-factor expression in human muscle after resistance exercise, electrical stimulation, therapeutic ultrasound, growth hormone or testosterone. This is the same reading the pegylated row records, because the two forms share one literature and it belongs to neither of them as an injected drug.
PEG-MGFAugust 20262361211All twelve trial-type records were opened and not one administers the peptide. Every one measures endogenous IGF-1Ec or mechano-growth-factor expression in human muscle after resistance exercise, electrical stimulation, ultrasound, growth hormone, or testosterone. The count is a count of exercise physiology, not of trials of the injected compound.
AfamelanotideSeptember 2026269135All thirteen trial-type records were opened rather than counted. Twelve name a variant in the title or abstract and one does not, a 1998 report of a melanotropin analogue applied topically to vitiligo minigrafts, which is a match on the search rather than on the compound. Only two of the twelve concern the approved indication: the 2015 pair of registrational trials in erythropoietic protoporphyria and a 2009 photosensitivity study preceding them. The remaining ten are other dermatology — vitiligo twice, solar urticaria, acne, Hailey-Hailey disease — plus an immunogenicity evaluation, an acute-stroke feasibility study, and the 1997 and 2000 pigmentation and pharmacokinetic reports published under the name melanotan-I.
PT-141August 20261211614All sixteen trial-type records were opened. They are the development program itself, from the 2003 and 2004 intranasal and subcutaneous dose studies to the two phase 3 trials that supported approval; one 2008 record is marked retracted in its own title.
SetmelanotideSeptember 2026243196All nineteen trial-type records were opened rather than counted. Seventeen name setmelanotide, RM-493 or Imcivree in the title or abstract and are the development program itself: the 2015 resting-energy-expenditure study, the proopiomelanocortin and leptin-receptor deficiency reports, the two phase 3 trials in LEPR or POMC deficiency, the Bardet-Biedl phase 3, the phase 2 in acquired hypothalamic obesity and its 2026 phase 3, and the quality-of-life, pigmentation and metabolic-risk analyses alongside them. Two name no variant in either field and are matches on the search rather than on the molecule: a puberty adipose-depot study and an intranasal oxytocin proteomics paper.
DSIPAugust 2026530196All nineteen trial-type records were opened, and three are not studies of this peptide at all: a glucocorticoid-replacement sleep study, a review of the insomnia concept, and a bed-rest hormone survey. Of the sixteen that are, fourteen were published between 1981 and 1998; the remaining two are a 2009 anesthesia-adjunct study and a 2014 Russian report of a DSIP-based preparation in diabetic retinopathy.
ElamipretideSeptember 20264702219All twenty-two trial-type records were opened rather than counted. Eighteen name a variant in the title or abstract; four do not and are matches on the search rather than on the compound, being a metoclopramide pharmacokinetic comparison, a water-based resistance training study, an aficamten trial in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and a 1977 report on pancreatic duct antibodies. One of the eighteen is a rat myocardial-infarction study from 2007 carrying a trial publication type. The seventeen human reports are the cardiology program from 2016 to 2020, the primary mitochondrial myopathy program ending in MMPOWER-3, the Barth syndrome program of TAZPOWER and its extension, a topical ophthalmic trial in Leber hereditary optic neuropathy, and a single-dose skeletal-muscle study in older adults.
TesamorelinAugust 20261272826individual records not read; the count is reported as a magnitude
GHRP-6September 20268015625Above the itemization ceiling, so the row reports a magnitude — but all 56 clinical-trial titles were retrieved and read, and the union is broader than the compound. It draws in hexarelin, ghrelin, the non-peptide mimetics MK-677 and L-692,429, and animal work in cattle, dogs and rats. What belongs to GHRP-6 itself is a provocation and diagnostic literature — growth hormone and ACTH responses, adrenal-insufficiency and growth-hormone-deficiency testing — one pharmacokinetic study in nine healthy male volunteers, and a 2026 phase 3 trial of a combination product in acute ischemic stroke conducted outside the United States.
GHRP-2September 20262605943Above the itemization ceiling, so the row reports a magnitude — but all 59 clinical-trial titles were retrieved and read. Almost every one is a pituitary provocation study: GHRP-2 given once, or over hours, to measure growth hormone, ACTH or cortisol release, a large share of them from one physiology group. The remainder is a phase 1 study in children, an eight-month graded-dose study in growth-hormone-deficient children, a food-intake study in obese adults, a diagnostic test for adult growth hormone deficiency, and one study in pigs. The count measures a diagnostic and physiological literature, not trials of a compounded therapeutic use.
SermorelinAugust 20265627139individual records not read; the count is reported as a magnitude
LL-37August 20263,0767245All 72 trial-type records were retrieved and read individually, out of band because the count exceeds this script's itemization ceiling. Sixty-eight of them administer nothing: they measure a participant's own cathelicidin concentration after vitamin D supplementation, exercise, or a probiotic, or as a biomarker in tuberculosis, cystic fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, sepsis, and periprosthetic joint infection. Four administer the peptide, all by a topical or oral route: randomized placebo-controlled trials in hard-to-heal venous leg ulcers in 2014 and 2021, a randomized trial of an LL-37 cream in diabetic foot ulcer in 2023, and a randomized trial of an oral preparation against a SARS-CoV-2 variant in 2023. Reported as a trial count for the marketed compound, 72 would have overstated the record eighteenfold.
CerebrolysinSeptember 20266769263individual records not read; the count is reported as a magnitude
Thymosin alpha-1August 20268709565individual records not read; the count is reported as a magnitude
TirzepatideAugust 20262,481144133individual records not read; the count is reported as a magnitude
DulaglutideSeptember 20261,322160149individual records not read; the count is reported as a magnitude
Vasoactive intestinal peptideSeptember 202616,022185105individual records not read; the count is reported as a magnitude
L-carnosineSeptember 20263,602196158individual records not read; the count is reported as a magnitude
SecretinSeptember 20269,152215103individual records not read; the count is reported as a magnitude
SemaglutideAugust 20265,670340309individual records not read; the count is reported as a magnitude
LiraglutideAugust 20265,901632575individual records not read; the count is reported as a magnitude

Two readings of this table are wrong and both are common. The first is that a large count means a molecule works: the counts here belong to publication types, not to conclusions, and the largest belong to approved products whose labels are narrower than their literatures. The second is that a zero means nothing has been studied: a zero here means no record carries a trial publication type under the searched names on the date shown, which is a statement about the published record and not about the world.

What the table does establish is which claims can be checked and which cannot. Where a molecule shows no trial-type record, any assertion about its effect in people rests on preclinical work, on a different molecule, or on nothing; the research-only page covers what that means for supply, and the molecule index carries each row's dated regulatory posture beside its evidence.

Elsewhere in this index

Other tables

Evidence reviews

Monographs in this table