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Bremelanotide at the testing bench

Reading list

PT-141 references

The analytical work, the clinical trials and the arguments about them sit together here, with their different purposes intact.

Read the trial discussionAbout this site

Identification and treatment

The forensic sample analysis by Mestria and colleagues asks what material was present. The RECONNECT trials ask whether treatment changed desire and distress. The long-term extension follows women who continued. The US prescribing information sets out the approved indication, formulation and safety exclusions.

Those sources do different work. Questions about contents, benefit and harm send me to different sources.

Arguments and experimental biology

Spielmans’s 2021 re-analysis and 2024 critique scrutinize the clinical results. The female-rat solicitation experiment, human neuroimaging study and female-hamster sexual-reward experiment investigate different parts of sexual response. Animal findings retain their species limits.

The reading list below also retains the reviews, development histories and telemedicine context. Inclusion in the list gives a source a place to be examined; the claims above it still depend on what kind of work it reports.

  1. Molinoff PB, Shadiack AM, Earle D, Diamond LE, Quon CY. PT-141: a melanocortin agonist for the treatment of sexual dysfunction. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2003;994:96-102. ↗
  2. Pfaus J, Shadiack A, Van Soest T, Tse M, Molinoff P. Selective facilitation of sexual solicitation in the female rat by a melanocortin receptor agonist. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004;101:10201-10204. ↗
  3. Kingsberg SA, Clayton AH, Portman D, Williams LA, Krop J, Jordan R, Lucas J, Simon JA. Bremelanotide for the Treatment of Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder: Two Randomized Phase 3 Trials. Obstet Gynecol. 2019;134(5):899-908. ↗
  4. Simon JA, Kingsberg SA, Portman D, Williams LA, Krop J, Jordan R, Lucas J, Clayton AH. Long-Term Safety and Efficacy of Bremelanotide for Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder. Obstet Gynecol. 2019;134(5):909-917. ↗
  5. Thurston L, Hunjan T, Mills EG, Wall MB, Ertl N, Phylactou M, et al. Melanocortin 4 receptor agonism enhances sexual brain processing in women with hypoactive sexual desire disorder. J Clin Invest. 2022;132(19):e152341. ↗
  6. U.S. Food and Drug Administration / DailyMed. Bremelanotide Injection — US Prescribing Information (NDA 210557, approved June 21, 2019). DailyMed (US FDA structured product label). ↗
  7. Spana C, Jordan R, Fischkoff S. Effect of bremelanotide on body weight of obese women: Data from two phase 1 randomized controlled trials. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2022;24(6):1084-1093. ↗
  8. Spielmans GI. Re-Analyzing Phase III Bremelanotide Trials for "Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder" in Women. J Sex Res. 2021;58(9):1085-1105. ↗
  9. Kim S, Cho MC, Cho SY, Chung H, Rajasekaran MR. Novel Emerging Therapies for Erectile Dysfunction. World J Mens Health. 2021;39(1):48-64. ↗
  10. Edinoff AN, Sanders NM, Lewis KB, Apgar TL, Cornett EM, Kaye AM, Kaye AD. Bremelanotide for Treatment of Female Hypoactive Sexual Desire. Neurol Int. 2022;14(1):75-88. ↗
  11. Dooley AB, Houssaini AS, Tsai T, Ramasamy R. Use of Telemedicine for Sexual Medicine Patients. Sex Med Rev. 2020;8(4):507-517. ↗
  12. Borland JM, Kohut-Jackson AL, Peyla AC, Hall MA, Mermelstein PG, Meisel RL. Female Syrian hamster analyses of bremelanotide, a US FDA approved drug for the treatment of female hypoactive sexual desire disorder. Neuropharmacology. 2025;110299. ↗
  13. Spielmans GI. Small Effects, Questionable Outcomes: Bremelanotide for Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder. J Sex Res. 2024. ↗
  14. Rowen T, et al. Evaluation and management of hypoactive sexual desire disorder in women. Recommendations from a multidisciplinary panel. Sex Med Rev. 2026. ↗
  15. Tan R, et al. Telemedicine Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic in 8 Countries From the International Society for Sexual Medicine. J Med Internet Res. 2025;27:e60369. ↗
  16. Dhillon S, Keam SJ. Bremelanotide: First Approval. Drugs. 2019;79:1599-1606. ↗
  17. White WB, Myers MG, Jordan R, Lucas J. Usefulness of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring to assess the melanocortin receptor agonist bremelanotide. J Hypertens. 2017;35(4):761-768. ↗
  18. Clayton AH, Lucas J, DeRogatis LR, Jordan R. Phase I Randomized Placebo-controlled, Double-blind Study of the Safety and Tolerability of Bremelanotide Coadministered With Ethanol in Healthy Male and Female Participants. Clin Ther. 2017;39(3):514-526.e14. ↗
  19. Clayton AH, Kingsberg SA, Portman D, Sadiq A, Jordan R, Lucas J, Spana C, Simon JA. Safety Profile of Bremelanotide Across the Clinical Development Program. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2022;31(2):171-182. ↗
  20. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (LiverTox). Bremelanotide - LiverTox: Clinical and Research Information on Drug-Induced Liver Injury. NCBI Bookshelf (LiverTox). 2021. ↗
  21. Mestria S, Odoardi S, Frison G, Strano Rossi S. LC-HRMS characterization of the skin pigmentation and sexual enhancers melanotan II and bremelanotide sold on the black market of performance and image enhancing drugs. Drug testing and analysis. 2021. ↗
  22. Nelson ME, Bryant SM, Aks SE. Melanotan II injection resulting in systemic toxicity and rhabdomyolysis. Clinical toxicology (Philadelphia, Pa.). 2012. ↗
  23. Bardhan M, Anand A, Javed A, Chilo MA, Khan N, Garg T. Polymorphism of Melanocortin Receptor Genes-Association with Inflammatory Traits and Diseases. Diseases (Basel, Switzerland). 2025. ↗
  24. Hadley ME, Dorr RT. Melanocortin peptide therapeutics: historical milestones, clinical studies and commercialization. Peptides. 2006. ↗
  25. Hedlund P. PT-141 Palatin. Current opinion in investigational drugs (London, England : 2000). 2004. ↗
  26. Al Shaer D, Al Musaimi O, Albericio F, de la Torre BG. 2019 FDA TIDES (Peptides and Oligonucleotides) Harvest. Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland). 2020. ↗