When 30 million Americans learned to inject themselves with Ozempic, they lost weight while creating the infrastructure for an entirely unregulated peptide market. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a longtime advocate of peptide use, now wants to legitimize this market and the science behind it. The Associated Press reported this week that Americans are injecting themselves with unapproved peptides such as BPC-157 and TB-500 while Kennedy removes Food and Drug Administration (FDA) experts, as he works to end what he calls the agency’s “war” on these substances.

The success of GLP-1 peptides proved that certain injectable hormones could transform bodies at scale. Ozempic became the 19th most commonly prescribed medication, with over 25 million prescriptions in 2023. These people then became perfect customers for other peptides. Gary Brecka, Kennedy’s long-time “biohacker” associate, sells peptide vials for between $300 and $600 each.

Podcaster Joe Rogan attributed his use of the peptide BPC-157 to his tendonitis being cured, and such anecdotal endorsements have been folded into reams of marketing material. Yet Dr Eric Topol of Scripps Research notes “there is no evidence from randomized trials in humans that any of these peptides provide the benefits that are advocated”.

Still, a business model has emerged directly from GLP-1 success. Hims & Hers announced GLP-1 injections last year, sending its stock up 30%. Within a year, compounded GLP-1s generated $225 million in revenue. The company’s acquisition of a peptide manufacturing facility signaled expansion plans beyond weight-loss drugs, with CEO Andrew Dudum stating that “so many [peptide] use cases have yet to be launched”.

Chinese suppliers advertise openly on TikTok and Alibaba. Suzhou Redgie Biotech offers peptides at $4-5 per vial with a 10-vial minimum order. Testing shows what’s actually in these vials, which are often made in mixed-use production facilities with poor safety standards. For example, Finnrick Analytics tested 2,999 samples from 123 vendors and found zero semaglutide in five of six vials from one vendor. The sixth contained 5% extra product, creating overdose risk. Heavy metals contaminated peptides at levels reaching 10 times the acceptable limit for injectable drugs. Purity levels ranged from 5-75%, with the remainder consisting of unknown chemical byproducts.

The “research use only” label lets companies evade all oversight. Products marked “not for human use” are essentially unregulated by the FDA. Facebook groups instruct members to say they’re “researching” rather than “taking” peptides. When the FDA under Joe Biden attempted to fight back, adding 20 peptides to its high-risk list in September 2023, industry groups called it an attack on “basic human rights to access alternative medical care”. The Save Peptides Coalition formed immediately, framing the issue as medical freedom versus government overreach. Compounding pharmacies sued the FDA, forcing the agency to convene public meetings before taking action.

An October 2024 statement from Kennedy declared the FDA’s “aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells” would end if Trump were elected. He told employees to “preserve your records” and “pack your bags”. In May, he appeared on Gary Brecka’s podcast promising to “end the war” on peptides at the agency. Under his leadership, the FDA removed experts from the compounding advisory panel while nearly 20% of staff departed as part of Kennedy’s campaign effort to remake the agency and the science it oversees.

Further events have hastened this paradigm shift. When the FDA declared GLP-1 shortages over (the government would later announce major price drops for prescriptions), preventing compounding pharmacies from making cheaper versions, the industry pivoted to unregulated peptides. While Kennedy’s positioning provides political cover for this shift, the groundwork was already laid by the FDA’s credibility crisis. Myocarditis risks from mRNA vaccines in young men, initially dismissed then acknowledged, gave the medical freedom movement its opening. The same people who rejected shots with 70,000-participant trials now embrace Chinese-manufactured injectables with zero human testing.

Trust, not evidence, drives these medical decisions. The FDA lost its trust through whiplash-inducing pandemic policy reversals and billion-dollar pharmaceutical scandals stretching back to Vioxx and OxyContin. The peptide free-for-all is the logical endpoint of a healthcare system where feeling optimized matters more than being safe, and where the new HHS Secretary actively dismantles the guardrails which might protect consumers from contaminated vials and 12,000% markups. Underground health science hasn’t become mainstream in the global scientific community, but it’s quickly become the reigning policy of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again regime.

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Oliver Bateman is a historian and journalist based in Pittsburgh. He blogs, vlogs, and podcasts at his Substack, Oliver Bateman Does the Work

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