Ostarine vs RAD-140
One was taken through two phase 3 trials and failed the endpoint that mattered. The other has never been tested for muscle in anyone, at any dose, in any phase.
Ostarine
Enobosarm, MK-2866, GTx-024
Reliably adds lean body mass and just as reliably fails to improve physical function — the two phase 3 POWER trials found both, which is why no regulator has ever approved it.
Full Ostarine evidence reviewRAD-140
Testolone, RAD140
One human trial exists and it was an oncology phase 1 — there is no trial of RAD-140 for muscle building in anyone, while the cholestatic liver injury is a matter of published record.
Full RAD-140 evidence reviewSide by side
| Ostarine | RAD-140 | |
|---|---|---|
| Marketed for | Muscle growth, recomposition, muscle preservation while cutting or on a GLP-1 | Muscle gain, strength, 'steroid alternative' |
| Evidence grade | Clinical data | Preclinical / minimal |
| Family | Hormonal | Hormonal |
| Key human source | POWER phase 3 programme, Lancet Oncol 2013 | First-in-human phase 1, Clin Breast Cancer 2022 |
marks a row where the two differ. Evidence grades come from our evidence matrix, which grades each molecule on the human data for the use it is marketed for.
Our verdict
Neither is approved and both are prohibited in sport at all times, but the evidence bases are not comparable. Enobosarm (ostarine) has two completed phase 3 trials in 651 lung-cancer patients, POWER 1 and POWER 2, which beat placebo on lean body mass in both and on physical function in neither — the drug arm fell below its own placebo in POWER 2 — and that dissociation is why the compound was never approved. RAD-140 has one human trial, a phase 1 dose-escalation study in 22 women with metastatic breast cancer, and no published trial of any phase testing whether it builds muscle or strength in healthy people; its documented human effects are hepatic, with liver chemistries the three most common adverse events in that trial and at least eight published case reports of cholestatic liver injury. This is not a safety ranking either way: ostarine has its own published cases of cholestatic injury, and roughly half of products sold online as SARMs contain no SARM at all.
Ostarine fits if
Ostarine is the one to study if the question is what happens when a SARM is finally held to a properly powered functional endpoint, and what that answer does to every muscle-preservation pitch built on lean mass alone.
RAD-140 fits if
RAD-140 is the one to study if the question is how far a compound can travel on rodent data — everything claimed for its physique use is extrapolated, while everything documented about it in people is harm.