AOD-9604: Dosage, Benefits, FDA Status & Clinics (2026)
What Is AOD-9604? AOD-9604 is the C-terminal fragment of human growth hormone — specifically, amino acids 177 through 191 of the 191-amino-acid hGH sequence. That's a 15-amino-acid peptide that was deliberately isolated because researchers suspected this regio
What Is AOD-9604?
AOD-9604 is the C-terminal fragment of human growth hormone — specifically, amino acids 177 through 191 of the 191-amino-acid hGH sequence. That's a 15-amino-acid peptide that was deliberately isolated because researchers suspected this region of the hGH molecule was responsible for fat breakdown, while the N-terminal end was responsible for growth promotion and insulin resistance. The hypothesis was: what if you could get the metabolic effects without the downsides?
That question drove a serious clinical development program in the early 2000s. An Australian company called Metabolic Pharmaceuticals took AOD-9604 through Phase 2 obesity trials, making it one of the few peptide fragments to reach that stage of human testing.[1] The program ultimately didn't advance to Phase 3, and the compound never received FDA approval. Today it sits in a research-only category — studied in labs, used off-label in some peptide therapy clinics, and available through gray-market research chemical suppliers.
If you're reading this because your clinic mentioned AOD-9604 as part of a weight loss protocol, or because you're trying to figure out whether it's worth adding to a stack, here's what the actual evidence shows — and where it runs out.
AOD-9604 is a 15-amino-acid fragment of human growth hormone (residues 177–191), designed to isolate hGH's fat-metabolizing effects without triggering insulin resistance or anabolic growth signaling.