Methasterone

The synthesis of methasterone is first mentioned in the literature in 1956 in connection with research conducted by Syntex Corporation in order to discover a compound with anti-tumor properties. This initial mention is elaborated upon in a 1959 research journal article, where its method of synthesis is discussed in greater detail, its tumor inhibiting properties are verified, and it is noted as being a \"potent orally active anabolic agent exhibiting only weak androgenic activity.\" The results of subsequent assays to determine methasterone’s anabolic and androgenic activity were published in Vida’s Androgens and Anabolic Agents, a dated but still standard reference, where it was noted that methasterone possessed the oral bioavailability of methyl-testosterone while being 400% as anabolic and 20% as androgenic, yielding a Q-ratio (also known as an anabolic to androgenic ratio) of 20, which is considered very high. Methasterone was never a commercially available prescription drug. Its non-17α-alkylated counterpart, drostanolone, was commercialized by Syntex Corporation under the brand name Masteron. Methasterone resurfaced in 2005 as a \"designer steroid\". It was brought to market by Designer Supplements as the primary ingredient of a dietary supplement named Superdrol. Its introduction into commerce may have represented an attempted circumvention of the 1990 Anabolic Steroid Control Act (along with its 2004 revision), since the law is, in part, drug-specific; methasterone, as is the case with many designer steroids, was not declared a Schedule III class anabolic steroid in that act because it was not commercially available at the time the act, and its subsequent revision, were signed into law. Methasterone was therefore being sold as an over-the-counter dietary supplement.