# Ipamorelin Order — The order of the literature, posted as a broadside > A broadside posting of the ipamorelin literature: GHS-R1a selectivity, two-hour human half-life, rodent bone-formation studies, the 2014 Phase 2 trial that missed its endpoint, and the 2024 FDA PCAC vote. Editorial summaries of peer-reviewed research. For research purposes only. ## Posted from the print-shop, in plain ink On a single sheet, in mixed type, the order of the ipamorelin record stands as follows. The compound is a synthetic pentapeptide — five amino acids, two of them non-natural — assembled in 1998 by chemists at Novo Nordisk and given the laboratory code NNC 26-0161 [1]. At the growth hormone secretagogue receptor type 1a (GHS-R1a), the same receptor that endogenous ghrelin occupies, ipamorelin behaves as a full agonist. Unlike the older growth-hormone-releasing peptides that preceded it (GHRP-2, GHRP-6, hexarelin), ipamorelin releases growth hormone without measurable elevation of adrenocorticotropic hormone, cortisol, or prolactin — even at doses two hundred times its growth-hormone median effective dose [1]. That single sentence — selectivity at the receptor — is the reason ipamorelin remains discussed in the peptide research literature nearly three decades after its first characterization. It is also the source of a persistent misreading: receptor-level selectivity is not the same as a clean clinical-safety record, and the long-term human data required to make any such claim do not exist. What follows on this posting is the order of items as the literature itself records them — discovery, pharmacokinetics, animal bone studies, gastric-motility models, the one human Phase 2 trial, and the recent regulatory orders. No vials are sold here. No doses are recommended. The site is a printed sheet, set in cold type, summarizing what peer review has actually published. ## The order of items, in brief **No. I — Selectivity.** Raun and colleagues at Novo Nordisk demonstrated that ipamorelin releases growth hormone in anesthetized rat (ED50 ≈ 80 nmol/kg intravenous) and conscious swine (ED50 ≈ 2.3 nmol/kg intravenous) without significant adrenocorticotropic or cortisol response [1]. This is the foundational paper. **No. II — Pharmacokinetics.** Gobburu and coauthors administered single intravenous bolus doses to healthy human male volunteers and modeled the data: terminal half-life of approximately 2 hours, clearance 0.078 L/h/kg, steady-state volume of distribution 0.22 L/kg [2]. Growth hormone peaked at roughly 40 minutes and returned to baseline within two to three hours. **No. III — Bone formation.** Two Danish rodent studies — Johansen 1999 [3] and Svensson 2000 [4] — found dose-dependent increases in longitudinal bone growth and bone mineral content following subcutaneous administration, with effects attributed to the growth-hormone / insulin-like-growth-factor-1 axis. A 2001 follow-up demonstrated that ipamorelin co-administered with a glucocorticoid restored periosteal bone formation rate roughly fourfold over glucocorticoid alone [5]. **No. IV — Gastric motility.** In a 2012 rodent model of postoperative ileus, intravenous ipamorelin (0.14 micromol/kg) accelerated delayed gastric emptying via ghrelin-receptor and cholinergic pathways [6]. **No. V — The Phase 2 trial.** Beck and colleagues conducted the only published Phase 2 efficacy trial: 114 bowel-resection patients, 0.03 mg/kg intravenous twice daily for up to seven days, registered as NCT00672074 [7]. Median time to first tolerated solid meal was 25.3 hours on ipamorelin versus 32.6 hours on placebo — a numerical trend, but p = 0.15, not statistically significant. Helsinn discontinued clinical development thereafter. **No. VI — The regulatory order.** At its October 29, 2024 meeting, the United States Food and Drug Administration's Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee voted against adding ipamorelin (free base and acetate) to the 503A bulks list [13]. Effective September 27, 2024, ipamorelin acetate was removed from Category 2 of the interim 503A bulks list [14]. The World Anti-Doping Agency classifies ipamorelin as a prohibited substance under category S2.2, banned at all times in and out of competition [15]. ## What this posting is not This is not a vendor. The site does not sell ipamorelin, does not list pricing, does not recommend a supplier, and is not affiliated with any laboratory, compounding pharmacy, or research-chemical marketplace. The word *order* in the domain is the broadside printer's order — an ordered posting, an order of items, the way a 1790 print-shop laid out a playbill or a public notice. It is editorial framing, not commerce. This is not a clinic. No clinicians are on staff. No one here writes prescriptions, conducts consultations, or offers medical advice. The compound described is not approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration or any major regulatory agency for any human indication. The literature that exists is overwhelmingly preclinical, with one terminated Phase 2 trial. This is not advice. Every claim on this site that quantifies a dose, a half-life, a sample size, or a statistical result is attributed to a peer-reviewed study and cited inline. Where the literature is silent, the posting is silent. ## Where to read next The full order of the literature, with each item set as its own broadside section, lives at [/research](/research). The pharmacology of dose ranges as they appear in the published studies — never as a recommendation — lives at [/dosage](/dosage). Reader questions, set warmer in tone but still cited, live at [/faq](/faq). The complete reference list with digital object identifiers and links to the primary sources lives at [/references](/references). A note on the editorial method and the publisher's standing lives at [/about](/about). --- For research purposes only. Not for human consumption. This site does not sell any product and is not affiliated with any vendor.