# Melanotan 2 Dosage in the Research: Doses Studied and Half-Life

> Melanotan 2 dosage as documented in studies: the Phase I escalation, the routes researched, and what is known about half-life. Research-context only — not a dosing guide.

A research-context account of the doses in the literature, the routes studied, and the open question of half-life. This is not a protocol.

## Read this first

This page reports the doses that appear in published Melanotan 2 studies — nothing more. It is a record of what researchers gave to test subjects and lab animals, written so a non-scientist can follow it. It is not a recommendation, not a protocol, and not instructions. Melanotan 2 is not approved for human use anywhere, and there is no established safe human dose.

A few plain points up front. Doses in studies are often given as "per kilogram of body weight" (mg/kg), a research convention. Human dosing was only ever explored in tiny early-phase studies. And a key number people search for — the half-life, meaning how long the drug stays in the body — has never been properly measured for Melanotan 2 in humans. Everything below is study-attributed; treat it as history, not how-to.

## The doses recorded in human studies

Human dosing data is limited to two small Phase I efforts. In the 1996 pilot pigmentation study, three healthy men received an escalating subcutaneous dose from 0.01 up to 0.025-0.03 mg/kg, given every other weekday for two weeks; the authors noted dose-limiting drowsiness at 0.03 mg/kg and suggested 0.025 mg/kg/day for future Phase I work [1]. In the 1998 erectile-dysfunction crossover study, men received a single subcutaneous 0.025 mg/kg dose [2]. These are the doses the investigators administered under research conditions — recorded here as study-design facts, not as a dose anyone should use. No larger or later-phase human dosing has ever been published [3].

## Doses recorded in animal studies

Most Melanotan 2 dosing data comes from animals, where the doses and routes vary by question. For appetite, researchers microinjected 0.1 to 1 nmol per side directly into the mouse nucleus accumbens [25]. The bell-shaped nature of some effects is notable: in a rat nerve-regeneration study, an intermediate subcutaneous dose was effective while both lower and higher doses were not — more is not simply better. These animal figures do not translate to a human dose; species, route, and purpose all differ, and they are reported only to show how the compound was studied.

## Melanotan 2 half life

No validated human pharmacokinetic half-life has ever been published for Melanotan 2 itself. The available data is indirect: a rat intravenous study showed rapid, multi-compartment plasma clearance, and the closely related linear analog Melanotan I, measured in humans, had a beta-phase half-life of roughly 0.8 to 1.7 hours after subcutaneous dosing. The practical point that confuses people: even though the peptide clears the blood within hours, the tan persists for weeks, because melanin synthesis continues downstream long after the drug is gone. Any "melanotan 2 half life" figure circulating online for the compound in humans is an extrapolation, not a measured value.

## Melanotan 2 injections and the routes studied

The route studied most, and the one used in real-world self-administration, is subcutaneous injection — under the skin [1][2]. Researchers have also used intravenous dosing in rodent pharmacokinetic and behavioral work, and direct brain microinjection in appetite and neurobehavioral studies [25]. Unlicensed intranasal sprays appear in self-administration case reports; oral dosing is impractical because bioavailability is very low. A separate hazard attaches to **melanotan 2 injections** specifically: because the products are unregulated, analytical studies repeatedly find mislabeled content, variable peptide amounts, and impurities [23][24], so the actual delivered dose from any vial is unknown. Injection also carries the documented site reactions and the systemic risks covered on the [side-effects](/side-effects) and [dangers](/dangers) pages.

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A forward-looking digest of the melanocortin literature — candid about what Melanotan 2 does and the risks it carries, and not a vendor, clinic, or prescription.