AOD-9604 Dosage: Studied Doses, Troches vs Injections

Key takeaways

• The only AOD-9604 doses ever given to people were oral capsules and tablets, 0.25 to 30 mg a day for up to 24 weeks (with short tests up to 54 mg), and single intravenous safety infusions of 25 to 400 micrograms per kilogram.
• None of them worked where it counted: in the 24-week trial of about 500 obese adults, 0.25, 0.5 and 1 mg tablets produced no significant weight loss, and development ended in 2007.
• Injections under the skin, troches, sublingual drops and the capsules sold today were never tested in any human trial, so every dosing chart for them is a seller's claim.
• The safety record (893 people, adverse events similar to placebo) applies to pharmaceutical-grade tablets and infusions, not to research vials.
• No US pharmacy may compound AOD-9604, so this page gives no reconstitution example.

The direct answer: there is no AOD-9604 dose that works, because the trials never found one. Every human dose was swallowed, as capsules or tablets of 0.25 to 30 mg a day, apart from single intravenous infusions in early safety studies, and the decisive 24-week trial at 0.25 to 1 mg showed no significant weight loss. The injections, troches and drops sold today were never tested. Our AOD-9604 profile covers the full history and legal status; the 5-amino-1MQ dosage page does the same exercise for the other "fat-loss" compound sold next to it, and our tesofensine profile covers the one in this group that does cause weight loss, at a cost.

Every dose of AOD-9604 ever given to a person

Six company-sponsored trials ran in Australia between 2001 and 2006, with 893 participants in total (Stier 2013).

Three things matter in reading that table. In the 12-week study the best result came at 1 mg, the lowest dose tested, and 10 mg did less: a reversed dose-response that is a warning sign in itself, after which the developer took only 0.25 to 1 mg forward. The confirmatory trial then tested 0.25 to 1 mg for twice as long and found nothing; the developer's own later review says effects on weight loss "were not seen in the last study" (Moré 2014). And the intravenous doses were single infusions given to check safety, not a treatment schedule anyone tested for fat loss.

Troches vs injections: what each route has behind it

Swallowed (capsules, tablets). The only route with human efficacy data, and the data are negative. AOD-9604 does reach the blood after an oral dose in pigs (Moré 2014), so the problem was not simply that it was digested. It was absorbed and still did not produce meaningful weight loss.

Injected under the skin. Never tested in a human, at any dose, for anything. The parenteral human data are single intravenous infusions in phase 1. In animals the peptide disappears fast: an intravenous half-life of about 3 minutes in pigs, and about 4 minutes in rat plasma in a test tube (Moré 2014). Daily injections of 250 to 500 micrograms rest on the theory that bypassing the gut makes a small dose work; that theory has no trial behind it.

Troches and sublingual drops. No absorption data, no blood levels, no efficacy data, in any species. A 16-amino-acid peptide crossing the lining of the mouth in useful amounts is an assumption.

The animal doses sellers echo. In obese rats, 500 micrograms per kilogram a day by mouth for 19 days cut weight gain by more than half (Ng 2000). Converted by body surface area, dividing the rat dose by 6.2 (Nair 2016), that is about 80 micrograms per kilogram, or roughly 5.6 mg a day for a 70 kg adult, by mouth. That is our arithmetic, not a dose, and the human trials covered that range and more: 5 to 30 mg a day for 12 weeks did no better than 1 mg.

The charts sellers circulate

Why there is no reconstitution example

People searching for an AOD-9604 dosage often want one more thing: how much bacteriostatic water goes into a 5 mg vial and how many units to draw. We do not give that, for three reasons.

• No pharmacy may make it. FDA added AOD 9604 to Category 2 on September 29, 2023 (FDA 503A categories 2023), and on December 4, 2024 FDA's Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee voted 0 yes and 12 no on adding it to the list of bulk substances pharmacies may use (FDA PCAC minutes 2024). FDA's Category 2 page now lists AOD-9604 among nominations that were withdrawn (FDA Category 2 page), which removes the interim safety flag but changes nothing else: it has no USP monograph, is not part of an approved drug and is not on the bulks list, so it still fails all three tests in our legal tracker.
• The arithmetic would describe an unknown. Reconstitution math assumes the vial holds what the label says. Nobody licensed has checked a research vial's content, purity or sterility.
• Calculators are what FDA cites. FDA's 2026 warning letters to research-peptide sellers named dosing guides, reconstitution calculators and bundled bacteriostatic water as evidence that research vials are drugs for human use.

Our reconstitution calculator is built for medications a pharmacy has dispensed with a labeled concentration. AOD-9604 has neither.

What the studied doses tell you about safety

The pooled safety report is the strongest part of AOD-9604's record. Across 893 participants, adverse events on oral doses up to 1 mg a day for 24 weeks were similar to placebo, nobody developed antibodies to the peptide, and IGF-1, glucose and insulin did not change (Stier 2013). Signals at the edges: 54 mg by mouth brought more headache, diarrhea and flatulence; 5 of 23 men reported mild or moderate euphoria during intravenous dosing; and in the 12-week trial all five serious adverse events were tumor diagnoses in drug-treated patients (two skin cancers, a melanoma, a breast cancer and a benign lipoma), which the investigators judged unrelated (Stier 2013). Twelve weeks is too short to say more.

The caveats are the same as for the dose table: company-linked authors, a minor journal, tablets and infusions of known content. None of it describes daily injections from an unlabeled vial.

Bottom line

A truthful AOD-9604 dosage chart has one tested route, oral, at 0.25 to 30 mg a day, and a result: no meaningful weight loss. Below it sit injections, troches and drops that no trial examined, at doses no trial chose. If the goal is fat loss, the best peptides for weight loss ranking shows where the evidence actually is, and it starts with drugs a clinician can prescribe.

Frequently asked questions

+−What is the AOD-9604 dosage?

There is no recommended dose, because AOD-9604 never worked well enough to get one. People in its trials took oral capsules or tablets of 0.25 to 30 mg a day for 12 to 24 weeks, plus single intravenous safety doses of 25 to 400 micrograms per kilogram. The developer focused on 1 mg by mouth, and in the 24-week trial of about 500 adults, 0.25, 0.5 and 1 mg tablets did not produce significant weight loss.

+−AOD-9604 troche vs injection: which is better?

Neither has any human data. No trial gave AOD-9604 as a troche, sublingual drop or injection under the skin. The only human efficacy data come from swallowed capsules and tablets, and those were negative in the decisive trial. Injection avoids the gut, but in animals the peptide was cleared from blood within minutes, and no one has measured whether an injected dose does anything to fat in people.

+−How do you use AOD-9604?

In the trials, it was swallowed once a day as a capsule or tablet, for 12 or 24 weeks, alongside diet advice in the larger trial. That is the only way it was ever used by people under study, and it did not work. Seller instructions for daily injections or troches are not based on any trial, and no US pharmacy may legally prepare AOD-9604 in 2026.

+−How much AOD-9604 is in a 5 mg vial, and how do you reconstitute it?

A vial labeled 5 mg is a research product whose content, purity and sterility nobody with a license has checked, so the honest answer is that you do not know what is in it. We do not give reconstitution or unit instructions for AOD-9604: there is no legal product to reconstitute, and FDA has treated dosing guides and calculators on vendor sites as evidence that such vials are unapproved drugs.

+−Where do you inject AOD-9604?

AOD-9604 was never injected under the skin in any human trial, so there is no studied injection site, dose or schedule. The idea that injecting near belly fat targets that fat has no evidence behind it for this or any peptide. The only injections in its human record were single intravenous infusions in early safety studies.

+−Do AOD-9604 capsules or pills work?

Capsules and tablets are the only forms ever tested in people, and they are why we know it does not work well. A 12-week study reported about 2.6 kg lost at 1 mg versus 0.8 kg on placebo, with 10 mg doing worse, and the 24-week trial at 0.25 to 1 mg showed no significant weight loss, ending development in 2007.

+−Is AOD-9604 safe at the studied doses?

In six company trials with 893 participants, oral doses up to 1 mg a day for 24 weeks had adverse events similar to placebo, no antibodies and no change in IGF-1; 54 mg caused more headache and diarrhea, and some people given intravenous doses reported euphoria. That record covers pharmaceutical-grade tablets and infusions, not unlabeled vials or troches.

+−Can a doctor prescribe AOD-9604?

Not lawfully in the United States in 2026. It is not approved, has no USP monograph, is not part of any approved drug and is not on FDA's list of bulk substances pharmacies may use. FDA placed it in Category 2 in 2023, and its advisory committee voted 0 to 12 against adding it to the permitted list in December 2024.

Sources

1. StudyStier H, Vos E, Kenley D. Safety and tolerability of the hexadecapeptide AOD9604 in humans. J Endocrinol Metab 2013;3:7-15. (Pooled report of six company trials, 2001 to 2006, 893 participants.) (2013)
2. ReviewValentino MA, Lin JE, Waldman SA. Central and peripheral molecular targets for antiobesity pharmacotherapy. Clin Pharmacol Ther 2010;87:652-62. (2010)
3. ReviewMoré MI, Kenley D. Safety and metabolism of AOD9604, a novel nutraceutical ingredient for improved metabolic health. J Endocrinol Metab 2014;4:64-77. (Company-sponsored review.) (2014)
4. StudyNg FM et al. Metabolic studies of a synthetic lipolytic domain (AOD9604) of human growth hormone. Horm Res 2000;53:274-8. (2000)
5. ReviewNair AB, Jacob S. A simple practice guide for dose conversion between animals and human. J Basic Clin Pharm 2016;7:27-31. (2016)
6. RegulatoryFDA. Bulk drug substances nominated for use in compounding under section 503A: updates to the categories, September 29, 2023 (adds AOD 9604 to Category 2). Copy hosted by the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding. (2023)
7. RegulatoryFDA. Final summary minutes, Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee meeting of December 4, 2024 (AOD-9604 free base and acetate: 0 yes, 12 no). (2024)
8. RegulatoryFDA. Certain bulk drug substances for use in compounding that may present significant safety risks (Category 2 list and nominations withdrawn; content current as of April 22, 2026). (2026)