Evidence cards

Know what
the claim rests on.

You find a research paper or a study plan while comparing programs. Read what was tested before deciding what the result means.

Researchers use a trial to test a treatment in people. A trial record describes what the researchers plan to test; it does not show that the treatment works.

The research answers different questions.

Animal work

What happened in mice?

Mice given MOTS-c put on less weight and handled sugar better than mice without it in a 2015 study by Lee and colleagues. Read the mouse study

A result in mice does not establish a benefit for people.

Human measurements

What do bodies make?

Studies in people measured the MOTS-c their bodies make, rather than testing it as treatment. That published research was checked on September 30, 2026. An exercise study in people

These measurements do not show that taking MOTS-c helps.

A changed version

Was it MOTS-c itself?

CB4211 is a changed version of MOTS-c, rather than MOTS-c itself.

The completed CB4211 study had no results posted on ClinicalTrials.gov, the website where its study plan is recorded, as of September 30, 2026. Read the CB4211 trial record

A study plan

Are results available?

The MOTS-c treatment trial on ClinicalTrials.gov had no posted results as of September 30, 2026. Read the MOTS-c trial record

The listing describes a study plan, not a result showing whether MOTS-c helps people.

Before relying on reassurance

Harms in people remain an open question.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could not tell what harms MOTS-c might cause in people in its review checked on September 30, 2026. Read the FDA assessment

The FDA had no information from people given MOTS-c to assess those harms.

The FDA raised concern that MOTS-c injections could make the body fight against the injected substance, in its review checked on September 30, 2026.

This is a possible harm; the review does not show how often it might happen to people given MOTS-c.

Ask a doctor to explain the gaps and the care options for the concern that brought you to the search.

For U.S. care

Ordinary pharmacies may not make MOTS-c from raw ingredients.

Making medicine to order is called compounding; pharmacies usually do this work.

Ask about a doctor’s prescription and the pharmacy’s right to make the medicine separately.

Ordinary pharmacies had no lawful basis to make MOTS-c from raw ingredients, in this guide’s reading of U.S. rules checked on September 26, 2026. Read the FDA rules for pharmacy ingredients

People who asked the FDA to add MOTS-c to its list of ingredients for pharmacy-made medicines took back their requests.

The FDA listed MOTS-c among those withdrawn requests in records checked on September 30, 2026; that did not give pharmacies permission to make it. FDA record of requests taken back

In July 2026, an FDA group of advisers discussed whether to list MOTS-c as an ingredient that pharmacies may use.

By September 30, 2026, no official record of the group’s vote had been published by the FDA. The FDA meeting record

Even a vote to add MOTS-c would only advise the FDA; it would not change the law under rules checked on September 26, 2026. How the FDA uses its advisers’ votes

Changing that ingredient list would still need a formal rule change.

“FDA registered” means a business has a record with the agency; it is not approval of the business or its products.

The FDA’s drug list holds information supplied about products; an entry does not mean the FDA checked that information. What the FDA drug list shows

Neither record showed approval or permission to sell a product under rules checked on September 26, 2026. FDA explanation of approval claims

Ask to see the FDA approval record for the exact medicine.

Turn a claim into a question for the visit

Use the evidence when comparing costsReturn to the parts of the bill