00 // Start with the scale
AOD-9604 Helped Mice Lose Fat. It Didn't Help People Lose More
The mice lost fat. People taking the drug didn't lose more weight than people given a placebo.
Could this drug loosen a tight waistband?
A tight waistband can make a weight-loss claim sound tempting. The best answer comes from the adults who tried the drug.
Scientists use the word peptide for AOD-9604, a very short chain made from protein parts. In dishes, the drug made fat cells form less new fat and use more stored fat [1][3].
Researchers built the drug from one short section of the body's growth hormone [3]. Growth factor 1 is a blood test tied to growth; it stayed level, but that fact cannot prove benefit or safety.
Across about six tests, roughly 900 adults with obesity took AOD-9604. Their weight changed about as much as the placebo group's weight, so the company closed its weight program around 2007 after the hoped-for benefit failed to appear [5][12][14].
Mice and lab-grown cells supplied the hopeful fat findings [1][2][3]. The drug isn't approved, isn't a food supplement, and athletes can't use it [15].
What did AOD-9604 change in mice and fat cells?
The name once stood for Anti-Obesity Drug 9604. Scientists made AOD-9604 from sixteen small building blocks copied from part of a hormone [3].
That origin tells you what the drug is made from [3]. It cannot tell you whether your weight will change or harm will follow.
Fat cells in a dish formed less new fat after getting AOD-9604 [4]. The beta-3 receptor is a switch on the outside of fat cells, and mouse cells draw on stored fuel when that switch turns on [1].
That fat-cell protein mattered in mice, not in a human test. After 14 days, heavy mice had less weight and fat while the amount of the protein rose [1].
Another mouse test found that the animals used more fat and lost weight [2]. Your body may not answer the same way as a mouse.
Cells given the drug did not act as though they had received the whole hormone. Growth factor 1, a blood result often raised by growth hormone, stayed level [1][3].
What happened when adults took the drug?
About six tests included roughly 900 adults with obesity. Across 7 days to 24 weeks, they took 0.25 mg to 54 mg each day while researchers compared weight and reported troubles between the test groups [5].
People on AOD-9604 and people on a placebo, a dummy pill, reported similar troubles. Their scales also changed by about the same amount, so the company closed that work around 2007 [12][14].
For your choice, the human finding carries more weight than mouse fat loss. These tests don't support calling AOD-9604 a proven weight aid [12][13].
Many possible weight drugs help animals and fail when people take them [13][14]. The AOD-9604 effects page marks personal accounts apart from those tests.
How does the drug differ from growth hormone?
The drug is modeled on one small piece of growth hormone. It doesn't contain the whole hormone, and its first link is different [1][3].
Sales pages sometimes compare AOD-9604 with CJC-1295. That second lab drug tells the growth gland to send more growth hormone into blood, so its results cannot tell you whether AOD-9604 works [3].
The drug is neither a steroid nor a food supplement. No health use for AOD-9604 has been approved [14].
Read what is aod9604 to learn what scientists copied. The AOD-9604 side effects page explains the known harms and the unanswered questions.