Tesamorelin Dosing: What the Egrifta FDA Label Actually Specifies

Roughly 12,000 searches a month ask some version of "tesamorelin dosage," and unlike sermorelin — our companion article covers why sermorelin currently has no FDA label to quote at all — tesamorelin actually has one. Two, in fact. Egrifta SV and Egrifta WR are both current, FDA-approved products, each with its own dosing instructions, and this page reports what those labels say rather than what a wellness clinic's dosing chart claims.

One fact worth stating before any number: both labels approve tesamorelin for exactly one indication — reduction of excess abdominal fat in HIV-infected adults with lipodystrophy — and both state plainly that tesamorelin "is not indicated for weight loss management as it has a weight neutral effect." If you found this page searching for a general body-composition, longevity, or anti-aging dose, the label you're about to read wasn't written for that use.

The two formulations are not the same drug math — and are not substitutable

Theratechnologies sells tesamorelin under two brand names, and the labels are explicit that switching between them isn't a matter of just doing the arithmetic: "EGRIFTA WR and EGRIFTA SV are not substitutable²." Each has its own vial strength, its own diluent, its own reconstituted concentration, and its own dose.

Egrifta SV ships as 2 mg of lyophilized powder in a single-dose vial. Reconstitute it with 0.5 mL of Sterile Water for Injection — the label specifies that diluent by name — which yields a 4 mg/mL solution. The dose is 1.4 mg, drawn as 0.35 mL of that reconstituted solution, injected subcutaneously once daily. Administer it immediately after reconstitution; the label is explicit that any unused solution is discarded — this is a single-use vial, not a multi-dose one, and it is not frozen or refrigerated after mixing¹.

Egrifta WR ships as 11.6 mg of lyophilized powder in a single-patient-use vial. Reconstitute it with 1.3 mL of Bacteriostatic Water for Injection — a different diluent than Egrifta SV uses — yielding an 8 mg/mL solution. The dose is 1.28 mg, drawn as 0.16 mL of that reconstituted solution, injected subcutaneously once daily. The handling model is genuinely different here: one reconstituted Egrifta WR vial supplies seven consecutive daily doses, stored at room temperature and discarded seven days after mixing, rather than a fresh single-use vial every day².

Both labels give the same injection instructions regardless of formulation: inject into the abdomen, rotate sites to different areas each time, and never inject into scar tissue, bruises, or the navel¹².

Why 1.4 mg and 1.28 mg are actually the same clinical dose

Those two numbers look like different doses, and in the strict sense that a syringe holds a different quantity each way, they are. But they trace back to the same underlying trial dose. The pivotal Phase 3 program that won tesamorelin its approval — 806 HIV patients pooled across two studies, randomized 2:1 to tesamorelin or placebo — used tesamorelin 2 mg subcutaneously once daily, which was the dose delivered by the older 1 mg-per-vial formulation (two vials reconstituted and combined to reach 2 mg)⁴. When Theratechnologies later reformulated the drug into higher-concentration single vials (first Egrifta WR's 11.6 mg vial, then Egrifta SV's 2 mg vial), the company's own bioequivalence work set the new doses — 1.28 mg and 1.4 mg respectively — to deliver the same tesamorelin exposure the original 2 mg trial dose produced, not a new dose chosen independently. The number on the syringe changed with the formulation; the pharmacological dose the label is built around did not.

No missed-dose provision — a real gap, not an oversight to guess around

Tirzepatide's FDA label states exactly what to do about a missed dose (administer within 4 days, otherwise skip and resume normally) and how far apart two doses can be moved (at least 3 days). Egrifta's own label has no equivalent language — a direct search of both current SPL documents for "missed dose" returns zero results in either. That's not a secret the labels are hiding; it reflects that tesamorelin's approved use is a once-daily injection maintained over months, evaluated by whether visceral fat responds, rather than a titrated ladder where the timing of any single dose changes the outcome the way it can for a GLP-1. Anyone offering a specific missed-dose rule for tesamorelin is not reading it off the label, because the label doesn't have one.

What a compounded tesamorelin dose is actually measured against

Neither Egrifta SV's nor Egrifta WR's approved dosing describes what a compounding pharmacy sells under the tesamorelin name — a compounded vial is not FDA-reviewed for identity or concentration before sale, and it may use an entirely different strength than either approved product. What the label does supply is the reference arithmetic: volume (mL) = dose (mg) ÷ concentration (mg/mL), exactly the same relationship our tirzepatide dosing page works through for that molecule. If you already have a prescribed tesamorelin dose and a vial with a stated concentration, our tesamorelin reconstitution calculator runs that arithmetic on the numbers you enter — it does not tell you what dose is right for you, and it does not verify that the vial contains what its label claims.

Who this page's board tie-in actually is

This site tracks providers for exactly one growth-hormone-axis compound: our sermorelin provider rankings. Tesamorelin is not sold by any provider on that roster, and it shouldn't be presented as if it were — tesamorelin's only approved use is a specific HIV-related condition, not general wellness, and that limit doesn't disappear because a telehealth site markets it alongside sermorelin. If you're comparing tesamorelin to sermorelin specifically, our head-to-head on what the evidence and FDA history actually show covers that directly. If the comparison you're actually making is broader — which growth-hormone secretagogue has the most support behind it — our ipamorelin vs. sermorelin comparison and our MK-677 vs. sermorelin comparison cover the other two compounds most often marketed alongside it.

The bottom line

Egrifta SV's dose is 1.4 mg (0.35 mL of a 4 mg/mL reconstituted solution); Egrifta WR's dose is 1.28 mg (0.16 mL of an 8 mg/mL solution good for seven days once mixed) — different numbers because the products are formulated differently, tracing back to the same 2 mg trial dose that won tesamorelin its approval. Both are injected once daily into the abdomen. Neither label specifies what to do about a missed dose. And both labels approve tesamorelin for exactly one thing: reducing excess abdominal fat in HIV-infected adults with lipodystrophy — not general anti-aging, not weight loss, and not the wellness use it's frequently sold for.