A linear alpha-MSH analog with two substitutions — norleucine at position 4 and D-phenylalanine at position 7 — that confer protease resistance and greatly extended activity. Crucially, it is selective for MC1R, so it drives eumelanin synthesis in melanocytes without the MC4R-mediated appetite, nausea and erectile effects that make melanotan II so unpleasant. Eumelanin absorbs light and quenches free radicals, which is the therapeutic basis in porphyria.
Completed proper development. Trials in erythropoietic protoporphyria — a disease in which sunlight causes severe pain — demonstrated increased pain-free time in sunlight. It is delivered as a subcutaneous implant, not an injection.
FDA-approved since 8 October 2019 as Scenesse, to increase pain-free light exposure in adults with erythropoietic protoporphyria. Prescription-only, administered by a certified provider. It is emphatically not approved as a tanning agent, and the contrast with its unapproved sibling melanotan II is the most instructive pairing in this library: same origin, one took the trials, one did not.
Implant-site reactions, nausea, headache. Melanocytic naevi darken, and monitoring is part of the approved protocol. It does not protect against UV-induced DNA damage in the way a sunscreen does.
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Regulatory status changes. This page reflects our reading of public sources as of July 2026 and should be independently verified before it is relied upon.