Tesamorelin is a synthetic growth-hormone-releasing factor analogue. It stimulates the pituitary to release the body's own growth hormone in its natural pulsatile pattern. It is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for one indication — reducing excess abdominal fat in HIV-infected adults with lipodystrophy — and its plasma half-life is measured in minutes. This page cites that evidence and carries no dosing of any kind.
By Tessaro Pty Ltd, the maker of Pepti · Last reviewed
This page is a reference, not a protocol. Tesamorelin is unusual among the compounds covered here because it is genuinely approved, with a published label behind it. That makes the evidence firmer — and it makes the reason this page still carries no dose figures worth stating plainly, because an approved dose belongs to a prescriber, not to a web page. What follows is what the label and the trials report, what a half-life of minutes means for a record, and how to log it.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Class / type | Synthetic growth-hormone-releasing factor (GRF) analogue (approved label, DailyMed) |
| Mechanism | Binds and stimulates pituitary GRF receptors, prompting pulsatile release of endogenous growth hormone (approved label, DailyMed) |
| Route | Subcutaneous injection (approved label, DailyMed) |
| Development / regulatory status | Approved by the US FDA for its labelled indication: reduction of excess abdominal fat in HIV-infected adults with lipodystrophy (approved label, DailyMed) |
| Evidence base | Human — randomized trial in 412 people with HIV-associated abdominal fat accumulation (Falutz et al., 2007), plus the approved label |
| Half-life | Mean elimination half-life about 8 minutes in healthy subjects (approved label, DailyMed) |
Tesamorelin is a stabilised analogue of growth-hormone-releasing factor, the signal that tells the pituitary to release growth hormone. Its approved prescribing information describes it binding and stimulating the pituitary's growth-hormone-releasing-factor receptors, which drives the synthesis and pulsatile release of the body's own growth hormone rather than supplying growth hormone directly (prescribing information, DailyMed). The compound is a trigger for an endogenous process, not a hormone replacement.
That mechanism is the basis of its one approved use. In a 26-week randomized, placebo-controlled trial of 412 people with HIV who had accumulated abdominal fat during antiretroviral therapy, the analogue reduced visceral adipose tissue compared with placebo (Falutz et al., New England Journal of Medicine 2007). On that basis the US Food and Drug Administration approved tesamorelin for the reduction of excess abdominal fat in HIV-infected adults with lipodystrophy (prescribing information, DailyMed).
Two points frame that result. The approval is narrow: it covers a specific population and problem, and nothing on a label extends to other uses by implication. Approval describes efficacy and an acceptable safety profile for the labelled indication; it is not a statement that the compound suits anyone outside it. Those judgements belong to a prescriber — which is also why the dose on the label does not appear on this page.
The approved label reports a mean elimination half-life of about 8 minutes in healthy subjects (prescribing information, DailyMed). A half-life is the time for half of what is present to clear, so a figure in minutes means the compound itself is gone from the blood quickly after each injection. That is characteristic of a releasing factor: it works as a brief trigger, and the growth-hormone response it provokes outlasts the molecule by a wide margin.
This changes what the record is for. On a compound that lingers for days, the log helps you reason about overlap between doses; here there is essentially none, because clearance is near-complete between injections. What the record is good for instead is adherence and the slow signal: the effect that matters in the trials — a change in visceral fat — develops over months and shows only in a long, dated history. A half-life of minutes is why you should not read anything into the timing of one injection.
Because tesamorelin is approved, its handling is specified on a published label rather than left to a supplier. In words, and without reproducing any of the label's figures: the sealed product is kept at room temperature, protected from light in its original box until use, with brief temperature excursions permitted. Once reconstituted it is used promptly and is not frozen or refrigerated, and any solution left over is discarded (prescribing information, DailyMed). If your own supply differs from the labelled product, its documentation governs, and the record should capture what that documentation says about temperature, light, and how long a prepared vial remains usable.
Pepti is a measurement and record-keeping tool, so tracking tesamorelin comes down to the same three jobs, none of which involve it supplying a figure.
Reconstitution, as variables. The reconstitution calculator takes the diluent volume you added and the amount your own vial is labelled with, and returns the concentration and the draw volume in syringe units. Every input is a figure you already hold, and the page shows the arithmetic rather than a recommendation.
Site rotation. Because this is a subcutaneous injection, the easy spots get reused unless something tracks them. The injection-site rotation tool keeps a 12-site sequence so each entry lands somewhere the last one did not.
Half-life, from your own entered value. The half-life calculator projects clearance from a half-life you enter. For tesamorelin that plasma figure is only minutes, so it is less a timing tool than a reminder of how briefly the compound itself persists; as always, it is only as good as the number you give it.
Most compounds covered in these references are unapproved, and for them the argument is simple: there is no approved label anywhere, so no authorised dose exists to publish. Tesamorelin is the harder case, because an approved label does exist and it does contain a dose. This page still does not reproduce it.
The reason is that an approved dose is not a fact about the compound in the abstract; it is an instruction a prescriber applies to a particular person, with their history, indication and monitoring in view. Lifted out of that setting and printed on a reference page, the same number stops being guidance and becomes decoration — authoritative-looking, detached from the judgement that made it safe. So Pepti supplies no figure here. It records the figure you already have and does the arithmetic around it. The figure belongs to you and your prescriber; the arithmetic is what we are for.
A tesamorelin record earns its keep by making a slow effect and a steady routine legible over months. A record worth keeping holds the following.
Tesamorelin is a synthetic growth-hormone-releasing factor analogue. According to its approved prescribing information it binds and stimulates the receptors for growth-hormone-releasing factor on the pituitary, which prompts the pulsatile release of the body's own growth hormone. It is given by subcutaneous injection.
Yes. Unlike most compounds covered in these references, tesamorelin is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for one specific use: the reduction of excess abdominal fat in HIV-infected adults with lipodystrophy. Approval is for that labelled indication only, and it does not make the label's dosing this page's to publish.
The approved label reports a mean elimination half-life of about 8 minutes in healthy subjects. That is a plasma half-life: the compound itself clears from the blood within minutes, even though the growth-hormone response it triggers outlasts that short window.
The label directs keeping the sealed product at room temperature, protected from light in its original box, with brief temperature excursions permitted. Once reconstituted it is used right away and is not frozen or refrigerated, and any unused solution is discarded. Your own supply may differ, so the record should follow what its documentation states.
In a 26-week randomized trial of 412 people with HIV and abdominal fat accumulation, the growth-hormone-releasing factor analogue reduced visceral adipose tissue compared with placebo (Falutz et al., New England Journal of Medicine 2007). That trial is part of the human evidence base behind the approved indication.
No. Pepti supplies no dose figures, not even for an approved compound like tesamorelin. Dosing on an approved label is a matter between you and the prescriber who directs your use. Pepti records the figure you already have, converts it into a draw volume and syringe units, tracks what is left in each vial, and keeps the site sequence.
This page is a reference on published evidence and record-keeping. It does not recommend tesamorelin or any other substance, and it provides no dose figure, no titration amount, and no schedule. Tesamorelin is a prescription medicine approved only for a specific indication; decisions about it belong with a qualified prescriber.
The Pepti peptide tracker for iPhone keeps the log, the site sequence, the vial count and the measured trend in one place.
Not medical advice. Pepti is a record-keeping and measurement tool, not a medical device.
Get Pepti on the App Store