It’s About to Be Hot Peptide Summer
Brace yourself for hot peptide summer.
In late February, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. joined Joe Rogan on his podcast, revealing that that he’s directing the FDA to loosen regulations on over a dozen previously banned peptides. The move, which seems likely to be announced in the coming weeks, would largely reverse the FDA’s previous decision to place 19 peptides on the agency’s category 2 list, which effectively bans pharmacies from formulating them for human use—and, by extension, restricts doctors from prescribing them. (Not that the initial decision to ban these peptides prevented surging demand from fueling a booming black market online).
According to the Human Health and Services Secretary, who expects that about 14 of these peptides will soon be moved back to the right side of the law, the compounds should have never been banned in the first place. He cites overreach by the Biden administration, but the fact remains that virtually all of these peptides still lack meaningful—and in some cases, any—human trials.
That reality has many experts worried. For instance, in a recent paper published in the journal Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine, researchers at the University of Utah noted that the popular compound BPC-157, nicknamed the “Wolverine” peptide for its potential regenerative abilities, could theoretically also promote the growth of tumor cells.
All of that said, this isn’t necessarily bad news, considering the popularity of these peptides continues to surge, regardless of whether the FDA deems them naughty or nice. For one, moving a drug from category 2 to category 1, where it becomes fair game for pharmacies and physician-prescribed treatment, makes it considerably more likely to be researched more thoroughly. And for the increasing number of people seeking out these peptides regardless, allowing them to be processed in FDA-inspected facilities reduces the reliance on a murky black market fraught with its own risks.
A recategorization would be the starting gun for researchers
No matter what you think about peptides, there is no denying that they hold an almost miraculous potential to support, treat, and optimize our health. Think of what insulin, a peptide, has done for diabetics. Look at what semaglutide, tirzepatide, and retatrutide—all peptides—are doing for people who have spent their whole lives suffering with obesity. And now consider the dozen-plus peptides in question that researchers have barely investigated. “The debate isn’t about whether peptides work,” says Sanjiv Lal, chief innovation officer at Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center. “It’s about which ones have enough evidence and regulatory oversight around them.”
Of course, early adoption comes with inherent risks. And when it comes to injecting under-researched chemical compounds into your body and hoping for the best, it’s hard to make the case that any amount of purported upside is worth risks that may include cancer or even death. To put it in appropriately scientific terms, you do not want to fuck around and find out. That’s for the researchers to do—and it’s actually what they will be more likely to do if and when these peptides get moved back to the FDA’s category 1 list.
“By putting these peptides on the category 2 list, it drastically restricted the type of research that could be done,” says Jessica Duncan, MD, DABOM, DABA, board-certified obesity medicine physician and Chief Medical Officer at Ivim Health. “If the FDA is reviewing the science, and they find it sufficient to move these peptides onto the category 1 list, this absolutely opens the door to more research and more understanding and more evidence for not only the efficacy but also the safety of the medications.”
Early peptide adopters will benefit most
Not all peptide users are 45-year-old Huberman Lab stans with an unexamined fear of aging. Many are patients with genuine health conditions that, until two years ago, relied on several of the peptides in question to just live normal lives. “When these peptides were moved onto the category 2 list, people were already using them and feeling the clinical benefits,” says Dr. Duncan. “So when they moved onto that list and were no longer able to be manufactured by places like compounding pharmacies, people still wanted to access them—and what they did was find alternative ways of getting those drugs.”
