AOD-9604: What the Evidence Actually Shows

Grade CFDA restricted

Status first

AOD-9604 remains FDA restricted and is not compoundable.

The short version

A synthetic fragment of human growth hormone, amino acids 176 to 191.
Designed to keep the fat metabolism effects of hGH without the growth effects.
It went through real human trials and largely did not work.
That is unusual here: most compounds in this category lack data. This one has data that was disappointing.
FDA restricted. Not available.

What makes this page different

Most pages in this library say some version of "the human evidence has not been generated." AOD-9604 is the opposite case. It was developed commercially, taken into human clinical trials for obesity, and the results did not support the hypothesis. Larger and longer studies did not reproduce the early promise.

It is worth sitting with that, because it is the most honest illustration of why "plausible mechanism" is not the same as "works." AOD-9604 had a genuinely elegant rationale. It was tested properly. It did not deliver.

Why it is still sold

Because the mechanism story is appealing and most buyers never encounter the trial results. It has also had a second life in supplement and topical products on the back of a food safety review in another jurisdiction, which is not the same as a therapeutic approval and gets presented as though it were.

What this will not do

It will not produce meaningful fat loss on the strength of the human trial evidence.
It will not be legally available under current FDA categorisation.

Full library · Safety and sourcing · Reconstitution calculator · Compound index