Melanotan 2 dosage: the doses used in the published studies

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This page reports the Melanotan 2 dosage figures that appear in published studies. It is not a protocol and not advice. Melanotan 2 is not approved for human use by any regulator, so there is no recommended human dose — only doses that researchers administered in experiments, which we report as facts about those experiments.

In the small human studies, doses were given by subcutaneous injection (under the skin) and described in mg/kg — milligrams per kilogram of body weight. In animal studies, doses were sometimes injected directly into the brain, which is a laboratory technique with no human equivalent. We never translate any of these into a personal dose, and the numbers below carry no 'how to use' instruction. Where a number describes muscle, kidney, or erection harm, that is a warning, not a target ^[4][24].

Human doses in the published studies

The human Melanotan 2 dosage data come entirely from small Phase I work. The 1996 pilot study escalated subcutaneous doses from 0.01 to 0.025-0.03 mg/kg per day, given every other weekday for two weeks; the authors recommended 0.025 mg/kg per day for subsequent Phase I work, and noted dose-limiting drowsiness at 0.03 mg/kg ^[1]. The controlled erectile-dysfunction studies used a single subcutaneous dose of 0.025 mg/kg ^[2].

These are study-design facts. They describe what investigators administered to consenting subjects under medical supervision in a trial — not a regimen for anyone to follow. Melanotan 2 has no approved indication, and the controlled human dataset totals only about two dozen subjects across all studies ^[3].

Melanotan 2 half life

No validated human pharmacokinetic half-life has been published for Melanotan 2 itself. A rat intravenous study showed biphasic, rapid multi-compartment plasma clearance ^[12]. For context, the closely related linear analog Melanotan I (afamelanotide) in humans showed an absorption half-life of roughly 0.07-0.79 hours and a terminal half-life of roughly 0.8-1.7 hours after subcutaneous dosing.

The key point about Melanotan 2 half life is that the visible effect outlasts the molecule by a wide margin. In both melanotan peptides, pigmentation persists for weeks after the peptide has cleared the blood, because melanin synthesis continues downstream of the initial receptor signal. Half-life statements for Melanotan 2 are therefore extrapolated — from rodent data and from the related linear analog — not measured directly in humans ^[3][12].

Doses in the animal research

Rodent studies used routes and doses with no human equivalent. The appetite study microinjected 0.1, 0.3, and 1 nmol per side directly into the nucleus accumbens of mice ^[5]. The female sexual-behavior study gave 1 and 3 mg/kg intravenously to rats ^[8]. A rat nerve-regeneration study found 20 ug/kg subcutaneously every 48 hours effective while 2 and 50 ug/kg were not — a bell-shaped dose-response. These are reported to characterize the pharmacology, not as analogs for human use.

Melanotan 2 injections and routes studied

Melanotan 2 has been studied by several routes. Subcutaneous injection is the primary research and self-administration route, and the route used in the human Phase I studies ^[1][2]. Intravenous dosing appears in rodent pharmacokinetic and behavioral work ^[8][10]. Intracerebral and intracerebroventricular microinjection is used for appetite and energy research in animals ^[5]. Intranasal sprays are documented in self-administration case reports but are unlicensed, and oral dosing is impractical because bioavailability in rats is very low.

A note on 'melanotan 2 injections' as practiced outside research: the products involved are unregulated, and forensic analyses repeatedly find variable or mislabeled content ^[22][35]. Reconstituting and injecting an unverified peptide is exactly the scenario the safety case reports arise from. This site reports routes as studied; it gives no injection instructions.