Ibutamoren
Purrptide digest
Almost everything on this list is an injection. Ibutamoren is a pill — which is either its biggest selling point or a sign of how unserious people get about needles. It mimics ghrelin, the hunger hormone, to trigger GH release. Side effect: you get hungry. Very hungry. Bring snacks. A large trial in elderly adults showed improved body composition over two years, oral dosing the whole way. Convenience with receipts.
What this means for you
If needles are a dealbreaker, this is the only oral option on the list with real trial data behind it. Just expect to eat more.
Increased appetite is a predictable, mechanistic side effect, not an outlier complaint — worth setting expectations with patients up front.
One of the few oral GH secretagogues with multi-year trial data in an elderly population. The body composition durability is the interesting finding.
Oral bioavailability is the holy grail for peptide drugs generally. Whoever cracks more of these unlocks a much bigger market.
For the nerds
Effects of an Oral Ghrelin Mimetic on Body Composition and Clinical Outcomes in Healthy Older Adults
Annals of Internal Medicine · DOI: 10.7326/0003-4819-149-9-200811040-00003
Read full paper on PubMed →