It’s not for the needle-shy. The drugs are sold in vials, and users reconstitute the powder in sterile water, suck the substance into a syringe, stick the needle under their skin, and blast it into their body. These are peptides, short chains of amino acids that, when made naturally in the body, serve a wide range of functions, including stimulating the release of human growth hormone to build muscle and repair injury. Olympic athletes, bodybuilders, and major leaguers have sought out synthetic versions or variants of peptides, easily manufactured in a lab, in an attempt to speed recovery from injury and gain a competitive edge. Regulators have a word for it: doping. We found sellers by the likes of Paradigm Peptides, whose Facebook posts include bulky bodybuilders and a claim that its peptide is best for “weight lifting,” Pharma Grade Peptides, which offered $120 vials of peptides from a business connected to a Los Angeles home that recently sold for $2.5 million, and Quality Research Chemicals, which offered an array of peptides from a signless storefront neighboring an insurance agent in Oklahoma City. While almost every peptide listing claimed to be for “research” purposes or “lab” use, reviews and product questions for at least 18 listings clearly showed people were taking it themselves — which experts say is dangerous. “We do not sanction customer misuse or abuse of products,” McCarthy said. “However, out of an abundance of caution, we decided to no longer allow these products and have been removing them since, as we have in this case.” Every one of the listings has since come down. McCarthy did not comment on how many vials had been sold before the company took action. [Read: Are EVs too expensive? Here are 5 common myths, debunked] While the peptides we found are not FDA approved, early enthusiasts believe the drugs may soon replace certain prescriptions, hacking into the body’s innate healing chemistry. Medical researchers are examining peptides for many possible applications. Researchers are studying the efficacy of synthetic peptides to assist in-vitro fertilization, reduce body weight in patients predisposed to obesity , and for multiple approaches to treating cancer. Earlier this year, Cuba claimed its biotechnologists had discovered a peptide that may be helping to curb deaths from COVID-19. But the enthusiasm for untested peptides is premature, experts warn, and has ignited an illicit underground market for the drugs. About a decade ago, competitive athletes raced to peptides for a performance boost after steroids became easily detectable and, along with human growth hormone, became strictly regulated by sports agencies and federal law. Since then, major league baseball players including Alex Rodriguez, Braves pitcher Andrew McKirahan, Dodgers pitcher Josh Ravin, and Indians outfielder Marlon Byrd have been accused of using peptides. The drugs have made their way into doping cases in track and field, cycling and soccer, and eventually into neighborhood gyms, where weightlifters and other hardcore hobbyists have an unproven faith that peptides help with everything from tanning, to life extension, to enhancing sexual performance, to building muscle and healing sports injuries. But users also risk potential legal consequences: For example, in Texas, possession of drugs that are unsafe for self-medication can be considered a misdemeanor offense. Other users opt to obtain peptides more formally with a prescription and through a compounding pharmacy willing to make a drug, though there’s confusion among practitioners we spoke to about the legality of this route. Most of the drugs we found are not approved for compounding and, according to FDA regulations, must still go through the agency’s approval process—like any other new drug. Nevertheless, providers say getting a prescription ensures a degree of quality and precision in dosing. It’s costly, though, to remove potentially harmful manufacturing by-products and to have a third party test the batch for quality. So the risk-tolerant are looking to the internet. Some appear to be turning one another on to peptides through Reddit threads, Facebook groups, and YouTube testimonials. That’s how Isidro Rendon, a San Antonio amateur bodybuilder whose nagging shoulder pain was keeping him out of the gym, caught on to the drug. Rendon said he learned about peptides’ reputation for promoting healing from a YouTube video hosted by a competitive bodybuilder he admires. (Google spokesperson Farshad Shadloo told The Markup that while YouTube does restrict content describing the recreational use of steroids, the video in question “does not violate our Community Guidelines.”) “Many said it was safe with great feedback,” Rendon said in an interview with The Markup. “So I just went for it.” Rendon did not respond to follow-up questions about whether he knew the drugs were not FDA approved and the legal issues of obtaining them. After his shipment arrived, he followed up with a five-star review of his own in January, his bowling-ball biceps taking up much of his profile photo. “Two weeks of use and shoulder pain & knee pain greatly improved,” he wrote. “Pure as gold.”
Prosecutors call “research” label a ruse
“I have had leaky gut and IBS for the past 3 years,” wrote John Sullivan on a listing for 5 milligrams of BPC 157, a peptide not approved by the FDA, in July. “This product is the first to lessen my symptoms considerably.” “The ‘animal’ I gave this to, noticed greatly reduced pain within a couple of hours from a lower back injury that had plagued him,” wrote Sharkly Buyer on the same listing Rendon reviewed for TB-500, winking at the seller’s “Not for human consumption” disclaimer. “This product alone saved the animal from inevitably having to undergo more costly less beneficial medical treatment at the hands of ignorant doctors who foolishly shun all performance enhancing substances,” the buyer concluded. But owners of other sites who’ve claimed peptides were being sold for research have still faced prosecution. “The disclaimer was just a simple disguise and cover,” said Sam Louis, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas who prosecuted peptide sellers several years ago before joining a private practice. Louis explained that such cases generally require showing that a defendant intended or had reason to know the drug was for people, and prosecutors point to communication or advertisements to prove the point. In 2013, an Illinois man was indicted after he advertised peptides he’d imported from China to bodybuilders, selling direct to consumers on sites (since taken down) like aminooutpost.com and genesispeptides.net, according to the indictment filed in the United States Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. He ultimately pleaded guilty to selling misbranded drugs, among other charges, and was sentenced to probation and community service. In another indictment, filed in the United States Court for The District of Maryland, a Florida man who paid bodybuilders for endorsements and frequented their conventions was nabbed after selling peptides to a government agent. A raid of his home revealed $2 million of misbranded drugs, and in 2015, he too pleaded guilty and received six months of home confinement. “We require all products offered in our store to comply with applicable laws and regulations and developed industry-leading tools to prevent unsafe or non-compliant products from being listed in our stores,” McCarthy said. She did not explain why some peptide listings had been live and selling to customers for years. “Someone was using my son’s account without my knowledge and selling the items you are questioning,” said Yossi Segelman in an email response to questions about Pharma Grade Peptides. “The items have since been removed and the account is now inactive,” Segelman said. Another seller, Pendmo Supplies, shuttered its entire business after being contacted by The Markup. Jennifer also acknowledged the market is really for human use, adding she takes two herself. “Peptides are administered via injection,” she said. Otherwise the “stomach acid would destroy it.” A representative for Trident Peptide, who declined to give a name, responded to an email The Markup sent to [email protected], saying Trident Peptides makes an effort to enforce the research-only rule.
“Unwitting guinea pigs” for untested substances
“The thought of otherwise young healthy individuals taking such products is extremely distressing,” Amy Eichner, of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, said in an email to The Markup. “Messing with hormones can have myriad long term effects including infertility, changes in growth rates, suppression of your own natural hormones systems, and probably many other unknown side effects.” Louis, the former prosecutor, said consumers looking to the internet to get the drugs a “little bit cheaper” are putting themselves at risk for harmful drug interactions, unintended side effects, and the consequences of poor manufacturing. He once prosecuted a case involving a different drug sold online that contained gypsum, a mineral commonly used in chalk and drywall. “It really can be a life and death decision,” Louis said. Some of its customers, reviews show, were worried. One customer wrote that he sought a lab report from the seller, only to be ignored. “I bought 4 vials, and now they are in the trash can,” wrote the buyer, who identified himself as Samuel, in a review of BPC 157 last year. He wrote it would have been crazy to blindly trust them. “I’m not so mad to inject or ingest an unknown powder in my body,” he said. Around the same time, army joe38 wrote in a review of the same product, “I had a dangerous allergic reaction that needed to be treated with prednisone with this stuff. Poor quality control, contaminated.” Dr. Rand McClain, a regenerative and sports medicine physician in Santa Monica, Calif., says he frequently has to warn patients against buying peptides online, where sourcing and purity can be suspect. He has prescribed peptides to his patients from compounding pharmacies he trusts, and he believes that when used under proper medical supervision, peptides are safe and legal. “It may be more profitable to have the ‘wild, wild west’ of sales, but it’s also much more dangerous for consumers,” said Lori Wallach, director of the nonprofit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. “We did sell lab chemicals that were clearly marketed as being for research use only and not for human consumption,” Graham wrote in an email. “Out of an abundance of caution we are restricting them going forward.” That didn’t stop countless customers from viewing the information before the listings were pulled. “[Y]ou will need 10 mL of Sterile Water or equivalent, depending on the method of use,” wrote James Heisey, in an answer to another customer’s question about how to reconstitute BPC 157. “Your cartilage and tendons wouldn’t be perfect with one bottle,” added Michael Carey in response. “It does work and everyone’s body is different.” “Good for just about any tissue repair, for better results, combine with BPC 157,” wrote an anonymous reviewer on a listing for TB-500 in July. One customer browsing a peptide listing thought to ask, “should I only buy peptides from licensed pharmacies?” The emphatic reply from another customer: “yes, you should.” This article was originally published on The Markup and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
