How long does VIP stay in your system?
VIP has a published half-life of about 1 minute. By the standard pharmacology rule of thumb, a drug is about 97% eliminated after roughly five half-lives, which here works out to about 5 minutes. That puts VIP among the fastest-clearing compounds in our dataset.
Source: Domschke et al., Gut 1978 (PMID 730072) · Peer-reviewed · measured: intravenous infusion · dataset reviewed September 23, 2026
What is the half-life of VIP?
VIP, vasoactive intestinal peptide, has a published disappearance half-time of about 1 minute from a 1978 study in Gut, measured during intravenous infusion in four healthy volunteers. Plasma levels fell by first-order kinetics, which is the same exponential pattern the table on this page models.
VIP is a neuropeptide the body produces throughout the nervous system and gut, and it is notably enriched in the lung. The synthetic form used in human trials is called aviptadil. A half-life of about a minute fits a signalling molecule that acts locally and briefly rather than circulating for long.
How much VIP is left after each half-life?
Each half-life removes half of whatever is left, so the percentages are pure arithmetic and the same for any compound; only the clock changes. For VIP, one half-life is 1 minute. The rows below run that forward for a single amount with nothing added.
| Half-lives elapsed | Time elapsed | Remaining | Cleared |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 minute | 50% | 50% |
| 2 | 2 minutes | 25% | 75% |
| 3 | 3 minutes | 12.5% | 87.5% |
| 4 | 4 minutes | 6.25% | 93.75% |
| 5 | 5 minutes | 3.13% | 96.88% |
| 6 | 6 minutes | 1.56% | 98.44% |
| 7 | 7 minutes | 0.78% | 99.22% |
Why do the numbers differ between sources?
The 1978 study is small, four volunteers, and it measured a disappearance half-time during infusion rather than a decline after a single bolus. That is a real distinction, though for a value this short the practical conclusion, that VIP is cleared within minutes, holds either way.
Figures for aviptadil products, including its combination with phentolamine approved for erectile dysfunction in some countries, describe different formulations and routes. Our dataset holds only the intravenous infusion value, and it should not be stretched to cover them.
What does a half-life not tell you?
VIP is endogenous, so after an infusion levels return to your own baseline rather than to zero. Five half-lives, about 5 minutes, describes the return toward that baseline, not complete absence.
It also says nothing about VIP's effects, which include vasodilation, bronchodilation and anti-inflammatory signalling through VPAC1 and VPAC2 receptors. Nor does it bear on clinical results: the largest controlled trial, TESICO, found intravenous aviptadil gave no benefit in respiratory failure from COVID-19.
Can you run the numbers yourself?
The estimator applies the same decay arithmetic to any half-life, starting amount and time you enter. It opens with VIP's published value loaded. Type another figure to see how sensitive the result is to it.
Published value: About 1 minute (Intravenous infusion) · Domschke et al., Gut 1978 (PMID 730072) · Compound profile
Show the math
What are the limits of this estimate?
Everything above is a single-compartment approximation: one pool of drug, falling by the same fraction in every interval. Real elimination varies with kidney and liver function, body composition, formulation and route, and a published figure describes only the route and the people it was measured in. Many compounds also show a fast distribution phase before the slower elimination the table describes.
A half-life is not a dosing schedule. Labelled intervals come from clinical trials that measured outcomes and tolerability, and nothing on this page suggests when to take, repeat or stop anything. Whether VIP is out of your system for drug-testing purposes is a different question again. Tests often look for metabolites rather than the parent compound, and the answer depends on the assay, its sensitivity and the sample type, none of which a plasma half-life captures.
FAQ.
Is VIP the same as aviptadil?
Aviptadil is the synthetic form of VIP used in human trials. The half-life of about 1 minute on this page was measured with intravenous VIP infusion in healthy volunteers. Aviptadil products in other formulations or combinations are not characterised by this figure.
How was VIP's half-life measured?
During intravenous infusion in four healthy volunteers. Plasma levels fell by first-order kinetics with an average disappearance half-time of about 1 minute. It is a small, older study, but it is the primary human source.
Is VIP ever completely gone from the body?
No. VIP is produced naturally in the nervous system, gut and lung. The half-life describes how quickly an infused amount declines toward your own baseline level.
For what the evidence on VIP actually shows, read the VIP profile. For approval and regulatory position, see is VIP legal. The half-life reference lists every sourced value side by side, including the compounds where a number circulates online with no reliable human data behind it.