What Tesamorelin is
Tesamorelin is a stabilized analog of growth-hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH), FDA approved as Egrifta for HIV-associated lipodystrophy. It works by prompting the pituitary to release its own growth hormone pulse, which is why its clinical effect long outlasts its sub-hour plasma half-life.
Reconstitution math
Concentration is everything: the same 5 mg vial gives a different draw for every amount of bacteriostatic water you add. The table uses the common 2 mL setup for each vial size, which puts every unit on a U-100 insulin syringe at 25 mcg for the default vial. Dashes mark draws too small to measure or larger than the syringe.
| Vial | BAC water | Concentration | 1 mg | 2 mg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 mg | 2 mL | 2.5 mg/mL | 40 u | 80 u |
| 10 mg | 2 mL | 5 mg/mL | 20 u | 40 u |
Dosing and protocol
Egrifta label dose is 2 mg subcutaneously once daily; 1 mg is a common lower start.
The label dose is 2 mg once daily by subcutaneous injection; community protocols often start at 1 mg. Because the peptide clears in hours, timing matters more than accumulation: it is usually taken at night to ride the natural GH pulse, and there is no meaningful carryover from dose to dose.
Pharmacokinetics
Tesamorelin has published human pharmacokinetics: absorbed and cleared within hours; half-life 26 to 38 minutes. The curves below are normalized one-compartment models built from the cited half-life, the same math the Planner uses. They show shape and timing, not absolute blood levels.
Storage and handling
Lyophilized vials keep best cold, dark, and dry; refrigeration is the community default and freezing lyophilized powder is common for long holds. After reconstitution, refrigerate at 2 to 8 C, do not freeze the solution, and date the vial. Bacteriostatic water's preservative keeps multi-dose use practical for about 28 days by USP convention, though our 120-day stability study found the preservative itself outlasts that window.
Egrifta's own labeling is unusually strict: reconstituted solution should be used right away or discarded. Multi-dose community use of generic tesamorelin vials runs against that guidance; keep reconstituted vials cold and short-lived.
Got a certificate of analysis with your vial? Run it through our COA Reader: it reads the report in plain English, checks purity and mass against the label claim, and links the testing lab’s own verification page. Our guide to reading a COA explains what the numbers do and do not tell you.
Sources
- Egrifta prescribing information (Theratechnologies, 2019)
- Falutz et al., Tesamorelin in HIV-associated abdominal fat accumulation, NEJM 2007