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Prescription-only medicine. This page is educational information only. Do not use without a licensed prescriber.

Afamelanotide (Melanotan I)

FDA APPROVED · RX

Melanocortin receptor agonist

Also known as: Scenesse, Melanotan I, NDP-MSH

FDA approved and prescription only. Sold as Scenesse to reduce phototoxicity in erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP), a rare light-sensitivity disorder.

Evidence score
65/ 100
MODERATE EVIDENCE

A real evidence base, with gaps

  • Regulatory standing. FDA-approved prescription medicine
  • Human trials. Backed by controlled human studies
  • No registered human trials. Nothing registered on ClinicalTrials.gov
  • 1 cited source. Cited references provided

A read on the weight of evidence and regulatory standing behind this compound. It is not a safety score, not a purity or quality rating, and not medical advice. It is not a claim that this compound treats, cures, or prevents any condition, and not an endorsement or a recommendation to buy or use it. A low score means the evidence is thin — not that a product is unsafe; a high score means the evidence is strong — not that anyone should take it. PLOBT is independent and takes no money from any vendor; no company can pay to change this score.

What's actually proven

Proven in human trials: it increases pain-free light exposure in people with EPP, which is what it is approved for. It is NOT a consumer tanning product, and it is delivered as a prescribed implant, not gray-market vials.

Half-life
Delivered as a slow-release implant.
How it is used
Subcutaneous implant, placed by a clinician.

What it is

A selective melanocortin-1 receptor agonist that increases eumelanin, providing photoprotection.

What the research says

Photoprotection in EPPHUMAN TRIALS

Approved on human trial data for this rare disorder.

Registered human trials

Live from ClinicalTrials.gov, the US NIH registry of human studies, refreshed daily. Counts studies where Afamelanotide (Melanotan I) is the intervention being tested.

0

No interventional studies for Afamelanotide (Melanotan I) are registered on ClinicalTrials.gov. That is not proof it is unsafe or useless, but it means the human evidence here does not come from registered clinical trials, the exact gap the marketing tends to hide.

FDA recalls & enforcement

No FDA recalls are on record for Afamelanotide (Melanotan I).

Source: openFDA drug enforcement.

What people log it for

Descriptive, based on what users track. Not an endorsement or a suggested use.

Photoprotection (EPP)

Risks & unknowns

  • Approved for a specific rare disease, not general tanning.
  • Administered and monitored by a clinician.

Doses reported in studies & protocols

Delivered as a clinician-placed implant per the label. This is not a recommendation.

Purity reality

Prescription implant with a verified supply chain.

Verified lab data

None yet. PLOBT does not publish invented purity numbers. Real third-party COA data, mapped to vendor and batch, is in development — and it is the one thing we refuse to fake.

How Verify will work →

Sources

We cite peer-reviewed journals, PubMed/PMC, FDA and university sources, not vendor marketing.