Epitan announced over the past couple of days two things:
 
1. They've appointed a New York Professor of Dermatology as Medical Advisory Consultant. Dr. Perry Robins has joined Epitan.
 
2. Implant trial has exceeded expectations.
Implant technique appears to be more effective than subcutaneous injections. Smaller doses of the drug (potentially as little as 1/10th previous doses) will be needed to achieve the same results of the earlier Phase II aqueous injection study. This will translate into a significant cost benefit for Melanotan users.
 
See thier announcements page here:
 
http://www.epitan.com.au/IRM/content/announcements.html
 
to get details.
 
-Scott

If you do regular shot doesn't work for tan?

Hi Derek,
 
I've been doing some research on Melanotan and I've found that your statement above is not quite true. I will post a full explanation under the melanotan-1 Experimentation section in a few days or maybe a week if I can't get to it.
 
But the short version is this .. the naturally occuring alpha-MSH that your body produces is indeed a linear peptide and it has a fairly short half-life (measured in hours).
 
The drug known as Melanotan (a.k.a. melanotan-1) is also of the linear variety; however, it has been tweaked at a few positions in the message sequence to make it more resistant to heat and enzymatic degradation. This change also gave melanotan-1 increased potency at the MC-1R receptor site and in addition, prolonged activity (measured in days).
 
When melanotan II was developed, it took the form of a cyclic compound of the naturally occuring alpha-MSH. It too was discovered to have high potency and prolonged activity (also measured in days) at the MC-1R receptor site.
 
What I've discovered through my research is that melanotan II is slightly more potent than melanotan-1 in regard to binding at the MC-1R receptor site. However, it is also a highly potent agonist at the MC-4R receptor site and has effects at the MC-3R and MC-5R as well. Thus, one will achieve the "boner" effect among others in addition to tanning when overdosing on melanotan II.
 
So the drawback is that while it may be slightly more potent than melanotan-1 for tanning, it has other side effects due to its affinity for the MC-4R site in particular, which may be unwanted if the dose is large enough. melanotan-1, on the other hand, is much more selective to the MC-1R and not as tightly bound to any of the other receptors sites. So in my opinion, it is a much safer drug to use for tanning if that's the only effect that is desired. The success of Epitan's compound proves my point.
 
I will be posting more of my research soon along with scientific documentation to support my claims. But I do want to say that I thank all of the experimenters out there for doing the ginea pig work. I will probably be experimenting with the form of melanotan-1 that Epitan uses in the near future as I cannot wait the 3 years to market.
 
So I'll keep this board informed when I get to it.
 

Thats interesting,
 
   I think I will give Dr. Dorr a call at U. of Arizona and see what he says as far as the tanning effect seen in the pilot clinical trial for melanotan II.  Afterall I just ordered 100mg and I hope I will see good tanning from the recommended dose.

This is very informative because I can now be sure of the exact message sequence for melanotan-1, and hence I will know what to purchase from the peptide manufacturers. This drug also goes by the name of NDP-MSH.