Tesamorelin

What it is

Tesamorelin is a synthetic analog of growth-hormone releasing factor (GRF). The brand-name version, Egrifta, is FDA approved for the reduction of excess abdominal fat in HIV-infected adults with lipodystrophy, and its FDA label notes it is not indicated for general weight-loss management (FDA-approved labeling for EGRIFTA). Compounded tesamorelin, the form available through Van Peptides’ telehealth pathway, is not FDA approved; only the Egrifta brand carries that status, and only for its specific approved indication. Outcomes are individual, and any use outside that approved indication is a matter for you and your provider to discuss.

Compounded tesamorelin is available after a licensed-provider evaluation. Van Peptides does not manufacture or dispense it: a prescription, if issued, is compounded through a US-licensed compounding pharmacy.

Van Peptides connects patients with an independent network of US-licensed providers who assess whether tesamorelin fits your history and goals. We do not diagnose, prescribe, or dispense, and we do not employ the providers or the pharmacy.

What the literature has explored

Tesamorelin’s clinical development, which led to Egrifta’s approval, focused specifically on visceral adipose tissue reduction in HIV-associated lipodystrophy, studied in randomized controlled trials that supported its FDA indication (FDA label). As a GRF analog, its mechanism runs through stimulating the body’s own growth-hormone axis rather than replacing growth hormone directly, and the approved label explicitly states long-term cardiovascular safety has not been established and that it is not intended for weight-loss management outside its studied population.

Interest in tesamorelin for broader metabolic or body-composition goals outside the approved HIV-lipodystrophy population draws on this same GRF-analog mechanism, but that use sits outside what the FDA reviewed and approved, and outside what compounded tesamorelin can claim. Outcomes are individual, and any extension of this mechanism to your specific goals is a question for a licensed provider, not an assumption this page will make for you.

We describe the approved brand-drug facts accurately because they matter, but we do not transfer that approval status to the compounded product. That distinction is not a technicality, it is the whole point of how this category is regulated.