Cardarine (GW501516)

Cardarine is the market name for GW501516, a synthetic agonist of the nuclear receptor PPAR-delta developed by GlaxoSmithKline as a treatment for low HDL cholesterol and the lipid problems that travel with metabolic syndrome. It is not a SARM and has nothing to do with androgen receptors, despite being sold alongside them. Company trials reached phase 2 and the program ended there. GW501516 has never been approved by any regulator.

PPAR-delta is a transcription factor found in muscle, fat and liver that controls the genes for burning fat. Turning it on shifts cells toward using fatty acids for fuel instead of carbohydrate. In human skeletal muscle cells, GW501516 increased fat oxidation and raised expression of CPT1, CD36 and ABCA1 (PMID: 17110604).

The endurance reputation is built on rodent work. In mice, a PPAR-delta agonist combined with exercise training increased oxidative muscle fibers and running endurance beyond training alone, and the same paper coined the phrase exercise mimetic (PMID: 18674809). Mice treated with GW501516 also showed improved muscle function in a muscular dystrophy model (PMID: 22908954). No human trial has ever measured endurance, VO2max or time to exhaustion on this drug.

What the human trials did measure was blood lipids. In healthy volunteers dosed for two weeks, HDL cholesterol rose in both treatment groups while it fell on placebo, and clearance of fat after a meal improved (PMID: 17110604). In 268 people with low HDL, twelve weeks of treatment raised HDL by up to 16.9 percent and lowered triglycerides by 16.9 percent, apolipoprotein B by 14.9 percent and LDL cholesterol by 7.3 percent (PMID: 22814748). Two weeks in moderately overweight men lowered triglycerides by 30 percent and liver fat by 20 percent (PMID: 18024853), and a crossover study in dyslipidemic men with central obesity mapped the lipoprotein kinetics behind those changes (PMID: 21816786).

The cancer question is the reason this compound is not on pharmacy shelves. In Apc(min) mice, which are prone to intestinal polyps, GW501516 significantly increased both the number and the size of polyps, with a fivefold rise in polyps larger than 2 mm (PMID: 14758356). A later mouse study found that the same agonist accelerated colorectal tumorigenesis while a PPAR-delta antagonist suppressed it (PMID: 30679176). Reviewing that work, researchers warned in print that PPAR-delta agonists then in development for dyslipidemia and obesity might raise tumor risk in humans (PMID: 15539957).

GW1516 was added to the WADA prohibited list in January 2009 and its urinary metabolites were characterized for routine doping control (PMID: 19946680). When 44 internet products sold as SARMs were analyzed, GW501516 was among the unapproved drugs found in products that did not declare it (PMID: 29183075).

Cardarine (GW501516) is available in liquid form.

Compare prices, payment methods, shipping, and COA scores across 1 vendor.

1 of the vendors BodyHackGuide tracks list Cardarine (GW501516) (1 listing). Among BodyHackGuide's Cardarine (GW501516) listings recorded as in stock with a milligram count, the lowest price per milligram is $0.170/mg at Disguised Alpha and the median is $0.170/mg. The Cardarine (GW501516) prices on BodyHackGuide are vendors' listed prices as BodyHackGuide last recorded them, not transactions; the most recent recorded change to a Cardarine (GW501516) listing is dated 7 September 2026.

BodyHackGuide holds 3 third-party certificate records for Cardarine (GW501516), from Disguised Alpha and Half Nattys. No editor has read any of BodyHackGuide's 3 certificate records for Cardarine (GW501516). The laboratory named on BodyHackGuide's Cardarine (GW501516) certificate records is Freedom Diagnostics Testing, and the newest test date on them is 25 August 2026. Each vendor page on BodyHackGuide shows how many certificate records BodyHackGuide holds for that vendor and links to each record that has its own page.