What it is claimed to help
These are the uses attached to Afamelanotide in research, clinical practice, or marketing. Listing a claim is not endorsing it — tap any of them to see every other compound carrying the same claim.
What the human evidence actually is
Approved by the FDA with randomised human trial data behind the label.
Real. Randomised trials showed increased pain-free sunlight exposure in erythropoietic protoporphyria, leading to EU approval in 2014 and FDA approval in 2019. It is an implant placed by a clinician, not an injection people self-administer.
How it is supposed to work
Selective MC1R agonist increasing eumelanin, which absorbs and dissipates light energy.
Safety
Nausea, implant site reactions, skin darkening. Requires twice-yearly skin monitoring.
Storage and handling
Lyophilised peptide is generally stored at 2–8 °C, or below −20 °C for long-term storage. Reconstituted in bacteriostatic water (0.9% benzyl alcohol) a solution is typically treated as usable for about 28 days refrigerated, versus roughly 24 hours for plain sterile water, which has no preservative. Add the water slowly down the vial wall and swirl — never shake, which shears peptide chains and foams the solution.
Whatever number a protocol or a prescriber gave you, converting it into syringe units is where a misplaced decimal becomes a tenfold error. Our calculators do that conversion and nothing else — they never invent a dose.
Open the calculatorsSources
- FDA prescribing information, Scenesse
- Langendonk JG et al. Afamelanotide in EPP, NEJM 2015
Verified against primary sources on 27 August 2026. Regulatory status in this field changes several times a year. See How We Rate Evidence.