Home / Compounds / Melanotan II
Melanotan II
Synthetic melanocortin receptor agonist · MT-II, sold as tanning injections and nasal sprays
- UK status
- Unlicensed medicine
- Availability
- Illegal to sell in the UK
- Evidence base
- Limited early human studies
- Controlled drug
- No
Sequence
Cyclic peptide. Verify notation against the literature before publishing it.
Melanotan II is the peptide in this register with the longest history of regulatory warnings in the UK, and it has nothing to do with weight or recovery. It is sold to make people tan.
01What it is
Melanotan II is a synthetic analogue of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone, the signal that tells pigment cells in the skin to produce melanin. It is a cyclic peptide, meaning the chain is joined into a ring, which makes it more stable than the natural hormone.
02UK legal and licensing status
Melanotan II has no UK marketing authorisation. Selling it is illegal, and the MHRA has issued repeated public warnings against buying or using it. It is commonly sold online as an injectable or a nasal spray.
A separate licensed medicine, afamelanotide, exists for a specific rare condition and is sometimes confused with melanotan II in online discussion. They are not the same product and one does not legitimise the other.
03How it works
It activates melanocortin receptors, principally MC1R in pigment cells, which increases melanin production and darkens the skin without sun exposure. Melanocortin receptors also appear elsewhere in the body, including in the brain, which is the reason reported effects extend well beyond skin colour.
04What the evidence shows
Some early human research exists, which is more than can be said for BPC-157, but it is limited in scale and was not carried through to licensing. No regulator has assessed the compound as safe and effective for cosmetic tanning.
Effects on moles and existing skin lesions are a specific concern raised by dermatologists, and long-term data does not exist. Because it is injected and unregulated, sterility and dosing accuracy are additional unknowns.
05Reported harms
Reported effects in the literature and in case reports include nausea, facial flushing, spontaneous erections, and changes to the appearance of existing moles. Case reports have described new or changing melanocytic lesions in users, which matters because it can complicate the detection of skin cancer.
None of this comes with a frequency table, because there is no Summary of Product Characteristics for an unlicensed product.
06Sources
Links go to the primary source. Where a source is behind a paywall or requires registration, the citation is given so you can find it yourself.
- Warnings on unlicensed tanning injectionsMHRA
- Melanotan II case reportsPubMed
- Unlicensed medicines guidanceMHRA
- Skin cancer informationNHS
07Change history
Every substantive change to this record is logged here with its date. Corrections are made openly, not quietly.
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