Pushing peptides

Summary

Podcast Summary: “Pushing Peptides” – Today, Explained (April 1, 2026)

Overview

This episode of Today, Explained dives deep into the exploding world of peptides—short chains of amino acids increasingly touted for everything from anti-aging to muscle building, fat loss, and injury recovery. Hosts Sean Rameswaram and Lauren Gardner explore the science, hype, gray-market sourcing, influencer marketing, regulatory confusion, and uncertain safety of peptide injections with investigative journalist Ezra Marcus (New York Magazine) and FDA policy reporter Lauren Gardner (Politico). The team unpacks not just the personal experiences and social trends around peptides, but also the government’s evolving approach in the United States.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. What Are Peptides and Why Are We Obsessed?

• Peptides as a Buzzword:
  • Peptides are chains of amino acids, commonly injected at home and sold as all-purpose cures—building muscle, improving skin, accelerating healing, burning fat, and more.
  • Host Sean sets the scene: “Wanna bulk up? Take this peptide. Wanna have healthier skin? Take that peptide. Wanna cure that ankle injury? Peptides.” (00:11)
  • Ezra points out: “It was just sort of felt like a buzzword that was increasingly everywhere, not just in real life, but online. Influencers, celebrities… it was percolating.” (03:07)
• Familiar Medications: Insulin and GLP-1 drugs (like Ozempic) are peptides, showing some legitimacy, but the market has grown to mysterious-sounding compounds like BPC157, CJC1295, and TB500.

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2. The Influencer and Athlete-Driven Hype Cycle

• Who’s Pushing Peptides?
  • Influencers, pro athletes, beauty and anti-aging enthusiasts, and “gym bros” all tout peptides online.
  • Some notable voices: “I was talking to a pro football player... ‘I shot that shit right into my hamstring for two weeks. And I was right back on the field.’” (04:24, Ezra)
  • Social media marketing, anecdotal boasts, and supplement sellers are fueling a mostly unregulated wellness “gold rush.”
• Memorable Moment:
  • “If you want one peptide that you can actually see when you look in the mirror, you’re going to want GHQCU.” (04:40, Unidentified Promoter)

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3. Getting (and Trying) Peptides: Two Main Pathways

• A. The Above-Board Way: Wellness Clinics and Medspas
  • Ezra describes his experience: “I went to one [clinic], made an appointment, talked to the nurse... He suggested a compound called NAD Plus, which a lot of people take for more energy, anti-aging...” (05:28)
  • Learned to self-inject, cost $250 for a six-week supply—not covered by insurance. Effects were subtle: “It felt a bit like taking a very mild Adderall… The next day, I didn’t feel much.” (07:23)
• B. The Gray/Black Market: Online Sourcing
  • Ezra explored online communities, Discord servers, and direct-from-China suppliers.
    “She basically said, great, send me $150 in Bitcoin, which I did... Two weeks later, I got a shipment labeled as face masks…ten vials, 5 milligrams each.” (09:51–10:20)
  • Quality and authenticity concerns: “I sent [a vial] to a third-party testing company… it came back that it was what it was supposed to be. But some 20% of vials they get are over/under dosed or contaminated.” (10:45)

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4. Scale and (Il)Legality: How Big Is the Market?

• Chinese factories are ready to supply massive quantities—offering “airlifted” vials and guarantees to skirt customs:
  • “Could I buy a million vials a month? And they said, absolutely.” (11:59, Ezra quoting Chinese supplier)
  • “I was blown away, just that it was as seamless as that.” (12:27)

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5. Safety, Uncertainty, and the Wild West

• Buyer Beware:
  • Ezra summarizes: “This is a total wild west. When people are telling you about it on social media, that’s because they’re making money... They're not experts. There’s just these economies…trying to pump their bag.” (12:55)
• Risks: Untested products, contaminated vials, and adverse health outcomes abound.
  • Lauren on recent incidents: “There was a case last summer of two women…in Las Vegas…ended up getting really, really sick after they were injected with peptides there at this festival.” (25:22)

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6. The Government’s Evolving (Conflicted) Stance

• FDA’s Difficult Position:
  • In 2023, the FDA reclassified more than a dozen peptides as potentially unsafe, moving them to a list of “bulk drug substances that may present significant safety risks”—often citing a lack of safety data, not direct evidence of danger. (17:03)
• Market Impact and Loopholes:
  • Legal compounding pharmacies got shut out, pushing the market further underground or overseas. “By this action…compounding pharmacies couldn’t legally make them anymore. So people turned to black and gray corners of the web.” (18:35, Lauren)
• Policy Pushback – The RFK Jr. Angle
  • New Health Secretary RFK Jr. (referenced from recent podcast appearances and federal hints) wants to reverse parts of the crackdown, arguing that the “wild west” is already happening, so it should at least be regulated and made domestically. (19:49, 20:18, 21:39)
  • “Their argument is: it’s being done. We might as well…have people have access to safe substances that they're injecting...and B, have them be American made.” (20:18)
• What’s Next? Regulatory Purgatory
  • A likely outcome: FDA moves some peptides into enforcement discretion (essentially “open to use, but not officially endorsed”), but this is not a clear-cut reauthorization.
    “It’s like a regulatory purgatory. The term of art in FDA parlance is enforcement discretion.” (22:33, Lauren)

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7. The Future: Peptides as the Next GLP-1 Craze or a Passing Fad?

• Much will depend on whether legitimate, mainstream telehealth platforms jump in.
  • Lauren: “I think a lot of it’s going to come down to how many legit actors start to step into this space…telehealth has also democratized access to things like GLP-1s…that’s how a lot of people would be accessing peptides as well.” (23:57)
• At the moment, it remains a risky, self-experimentation zone:
  • Sean: “We are all just guinea pigs right now until the government figures this out…” (25:04)
  • Lauren: “These things aren’t without risk…how many people are going to experience bad reactions…or actually see benefits? Or is it all just one big placebo effect? How will that be measured? Who knows?” (25:22)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Peptide Marketing:
  • “If you want one peptide that you can actually see when you look in the mirror, you’re going to want GHKCU.” (04:40, Unidentified Promoter)
• Scaling the Gray Market:
  • “Could I buy a million vials a month? And they said, absolutely.” (11:59, Ezra)
  • “Don’t worry about customs. We will give you a refund if you are detained.” (12:21, Chinese supplier)
• On Regulatory Uncertainty:
  • “This is a total wild west…When people are telling you about it on social media, that’s because they’re making money…not experts.” (12:55, Ezra)
  • “It’s like a regulatory purgatory. The term of art in FDA parlance is enforcement discretion.” (22:33, Lauren)
• On Societal Experimentation:
  • “We are all just guinea pigs right now until the government figures this out…” (25:04, Sean)
  • “Is it all just one big placebo effect? How will that be measured? Who knows?” (25:22, Lauren)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:00–03:07 – Setting the Stage: What are Peptides? Why the Hype?
• 03:23–04:55 – Influencer and Athlete Endorsement
• 05:28–07:23 – Ezra’s Personal Peptide Experience (Wellness Clinic)
• 08:00–12:39 – The Gray Market, Chinese Suppliers, and Sourcing Experience
• 12:47–13:45 – Community Reaction and Buyer Beware
• 17:03–23:32 – The FDA’s Evolving Position and Regulatory Limbo
• 23:57–26:29 – The Future: Fad or Next Healthcare Revolution?

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Further Reading

• Ezra Marcus’s article: “Life on Peptides: Feels Amazing” (nymag.com)
• Lauren Gardner’s FDA/Pharma reporting (politico.com)

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Tone of the Episode:
Witty, skeptical, slightly irreverent, and deeply curious—mirroring the “Wild West” vibe of the peptide industry.

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Bottom Line:
Peptides are at the center of a wellness gold rush—mixing science, anecdote, influencer marketing, and a global gray market—while U.S. regulators, providers, and consumers all navigate uncharted territory. The risks may be overlooked amid the hype, but the search for the next miracle molecule continues, as does the regulatory (and cultural) tug-of-war.
Buyer beware, and watch this space.

Transcript

[Sean Ramasur]

Kristi Noem's husband? No, no. April Fool's Peptides. Peptides. I keep seeing ads about them. You probably keep seeing ads about them. Wanna bulk up? Take this peptide. Wanna have healthier skin? Take that peptide. Wanna cure that ankle injury? Peptides. Chains of amino acids you can inject from the comfort of your own home. Maybe you already have, or maybe not, because you're scared or skeptical. But maybe you don't have to be. I bet there are a few peptides you're already familiar with. Insulin is one of them. Ozempic is another. Turns out The P in GLP1 stands for peptide. But what about BPC157 or CJC1295 or TB500 or GHKCU? Sounds a little R2D 2C3PO to me. Should we really be shooting these things into our bodies? On Today Explained we're going to hear from a guy who did and these still alive. So yay. Support for the program comes from Anthropic, the team behind Claude. Have you heard of him? Every story on the show exists because someone wanted a deeper understanding of the world around them. Anthropic says Claude was built to follow that same instinct. It doesn't hand you the tidy version. It helps you work through the complicated one, pushing back on your assumptions and helping you sit with what doesn't add up. And with deep research, Claude digs across dozens of sources where they agree and where they don't, so you can trace the reasoning yourself. You can try Cloud free at Claude. AI todayexplained when is the AI bubble gonna burst? How do you AI proof your job? How should colleges handle AI and prepare students for a shifting job market? I'm Henry Blodgett, and on my show Solutions, I've been exploring all of those questions and more with experts who have actual answers. We hear enough about our problems. Let's solve them. Follow Solutions with Henry Blodgett

[Lauren Gardner]

Put that

[Sean Ramasur]

back tied tied you're step Put that back tied in your step Back tied you're step today explained Sean Ramis from I've never shot any peptides into my already perfect body, but Ezra Marcus has.

[Ezra Marcus]

I'm an investigative reporter for New York Magazine and other publications.

[Sean Ramasur]

Ezra's latest opus for New York Magazine was called Life on Peptides. Feels amazing. We asked him what made him want to live that peptide life.

[Ezra Marcus]

I became curious about it when I just started hearing people I know bring up that they had started taking these injectable substances that I didn't really understand and I felt like the term was just sort of popping up. Like you'd hear somebody at a party say, oh yeah, I've started taking this or that peptide for, you know, joint pain or anti aging or weight loss or what have you.

[Lauren Gardner]

Is there a reason that literally every single person and their mother are on

[Ezra Marcus]

peptides at this point?

[Unidentified Wellness Enthusiast]

I'm starting a new peptide today.

[Sean Ramasur]

This one is for pain and inflammation.

[Lauren Gardner]

I'm starting with GHKCU Glow stock.

[Sean Ramasur]

I take peptides. So what?

[Ezra Marcus]

So what?

[Sean Ramasur]

It's for my health.

[Ezra Marcus]

And it was just sort of felt like a buzzword that was increasingly everywhere, not just in, you know, real life, but on online influencers, celebrities, this and that. So it just felt like something that was just sitting out there and was percolating. And I wanted to know more.

[Sean Ramasur]

Before we get to how it went for you particularly, tell us about the influencers. What are they saying about peptides and who are they?

[Ezra Marcus]

There's a huge endless constellation of influencers pushing, you know, health and wellness trends online. Obviously there has been for years and that ecosystem is flourishing more than ever. And they're always looking for what, you know, it feels like the hot new thing, the kind of like just around the corner invention that's going to change everything about anti aging and weight loss and muscle growth and you know, everything under the sun. Especially when it comes to kind of, you know, vanity outcomes that typically move the needle for large numbers of people in America. And so we're talking about everyone from like, you know, Maha, like life extension, RFK types of influencers.

[Unidentified Industry Insider]

Yeah, I mean I'm a big fan of peptides. I've used them myself.

[Ezra Marcus]

I was talking to a pro football player, pulled his hamstring. He's like, dude, I shot that shit right into my hamstring for two weeks. And I was right back on the field.

[Sean Ramasur]

Wow.

[Ezra Marcus]

I was like, that's nuts to just like straightforward beauty influencers to gym bros.

[Unidentified Wellness Enthusiast]

If you want one peptide that you

[Lauren Gardner]

can actually see when you look in

[Unidentified Advertiser/Promoter]

the mirror, you're going to want GHQCU.

[Sean Ramasur]

If I was anything under 200 pounds,

[Ezra Marcus]

there's a 3 peptide stack that I would definitely be taking right now to put on some weight to the so called look smackers. Everything I'm taking to look smacks as a woman.

[Sean Ramasur]

So what's the best way to improve upon your coloring?

[Ezra Marcus]

Right, so Melano 10 2, guys, Melano

[Sean Ramasur]

102 is the best peptide that you could take for your coloring? Right.

[Ezra Marcus]

It's almost every sector of people talking about how to optimize your life at some point, dip their toes into the peptide hype cycle over the last year or so.

[Sean Ramasur]

When you want to take peptides, there are a few doors you can open. Let's talk about the door that you chose to open. Where did your journey begin?

[Ezra Marcus]

Yeah, so when I was researching this, I was talking to people and I was sort of coming across, like you said, a variety of entry points for the consumer. And I explored two different ones, the sort of above board way and the gray market way. And the above board way is just you go to any number of wellness clinic, med spa, whatever, and all of them sell peptides now. And I basically just went to one in the city, made an appointment, talked to the nurse, I said, you know, I'm a reporter working on a story about peptides, but I'm also curious about trying one. What do you got for me? And he was like, well, what do you want to try fix about yourself? And I was like, well, I guess I, you know, I could use a little more energy. I freelance, so I get, I get sleepy in the afternoon. What do you have for me? And he suggested a compound called NAD plus, which is a really popular compound that people take for a variety of supposed benefits, including more energy, anti aging stuff.

[Lauren Gardner]

Week three update. And I think it's an obsession at this point. You guys, I am aging backwards, truly. I feel 15 years younger than I did a year ago.

[Unidentified Advertiser/Promoter]

I Simply am taking NAD.

[Ezra Marcus]

I basically paid for a 6 week supply. They gave me a bunch of insulin needles and taught me how to inject and sent me on my way.

[Sean Ramasur]

How much did it cost?

[Ezra Marcus]

It cost $250 for a six week supply. So, you know, it's expensive, definitely not covered by insurance.

[Sean Ramasur]

You go home and what do you immediately start shooting? Peptides straight up. Tell us how it goes. What do you

[Ezra Marcus]

given to you in the form of a, what's called a lyophilized powder, which basically just means powder in a vial. You mix that with something called bacteriostatic water, which is just water with a bit of alcohol mixed into it, that turns it into a fluid, which you then draw into a syringe and then you inject it in your fatty tissue. So in my case that was into my stomach. That's pretty much that. I wouldn't say that the NAD produced particularly dramatic effects. It felt a bit like taking a very mild of Adderall for the day that I'd taken it, but without the kind of comedown or anything like that. The next day I didn't feel Much.

[Sean Ramasur]

It sounds like, basically, it felt like you drank a Matcha Latte one day. But there are definitely power users out there and you spoke to a bunch of them. How much differently are their peptide experiences to the one that you had?

[Ezra Marcus]

Well, it's not really comparable just in that people are taking so many different kinds of peptides for so many different things. I would say probably the peptide that had the sort of biggest hype cycle around it and the biggest push on social media and that was making the most dramatic changes for people is really just the GLP1 drugs. There's also a drug called Retatrutide that's a sort of the next generation of GLP1 that Eli Lilly, the pharmaceutical company, is developing, that's not on the market yet, but it's basically being synthesized, you know, technically, illegally, and sold at scale. And a lot of people were taking that because it seems to have much stronger effects than even the current class of GLP1 drugs on the market. What if I told you that there's a weight loss drug that is going to make Ozempic obsolete? Would you believe me? So today we're talking more Retatrutide, and I will say it works freaking wonders. Okay, and I took that one as well.

[Sean Ramasur]

How'd that go?

[Ezra Marcus]

So that's the other pathway into the market that I explored, the gray market.

[Sean Ramasur]

Oh.

[Ezra Marcus]

I went on Reddit and started talking to people that were posting about taking peptides. And I came into contact with somebody who introduced me to his Discord server, where he helps coordinate a group of a few hundred enthusiasts purchase peptides from a Chinese factory. And the representative from the Chinese factory who was using the name Jasmine was posting in the Discord and letting people know, you know, we have this X, Y and Z product. We have a. We have a special for the Lunar Festival. We have, you know, bulk discounts.

[Unidentified Advertiser/Promoter]

Dear friends, Happy New Year. Wishing you a joyful holiday with family. Our exclusive sale is on. Perfect. Time to stock up.

[Ezra Marcus]

So I started talking to Jasmine on WhatsApp, and I basically said, look, I want to buy a GLP one called the Reddit Truetide, which is not available yet in the legal market, but is being synthesized in China. And she basically said, Great, send me $150 in Bitcoin, which I did.

[Unidentified Advertiser/Promoter]

You can send me screenshot after payment. I also need your name, phone number, and address to make an order. Thank you.

[Ezra Marcus]

And then, you know, half expecting, basically nothing to happen. But then two weeks later, I got a shipment which was labeled as face masks from the Philippines but in fact contained a six month supply of retatrutide. Ten vials, 5 milligrams each.

[Sean Ramasur]

Were you nervous to try the Chinese peptides?

[Ezra Marcus]

So I went to a third party testing company which have a number of them have sprung up. As these things have grown popular, people are understandably wary about injecting the stuff that they're buying sight unseen, you know, from overseas. I sent them one of the vials, they tested it, and it came back that it was what it was supposed to be. It was, it was in fact 5 milligrams of retatrutide without any toxins or anything. You know, some 20% of the vials that they get in for testing have something wrong with them. They're over or under dosed, they might be contaminated in some way. You know, all things you don't want to be injecting. So, yeah, I mean, the risks are very real. But in my case, it was what it said it was. I injected it and it did exactly what it's supposed to do, which is curb my appetite. So I became really curious about how much of this stuff, these factories in China were actually capable of producing and selling to America. Because I think a lot of this stuff is being bought at scale white, labeled and sold for huge markups. So I started just messaging dozens of these factories who all had enthusiastic representatives on WhatsApp who largely had AI generated images of young, beautiful women as their representative. And I just started asking like, hey, how much of this could I buy per month? Let's say I operate a storefront in the US and I want to purchase 10,000 vials of red at true tide a month. Could you sell me that? And they were like, of course. I said, how about 100,000? They were like, no problem. And I got to the point, I was like, could I buy a million vials a month? And they said, absolutely.

[Unidentified Advertiser/Promoter]

We are airlifted. Don't worry about customs. We will give you a refund if you are detained.

[Ezra Marcus]

And we have other customers buying this much as well. And we'll help you get it through customs. Send the cash now. And I was blown away, just that it was as seamless as that.

[Sean Ramasur]

You're obviously not a doctor, but you wrote this piece in which you waded into this world that a lot of people are curious about right now. What was the reaction?

[Ezra Marcus]

I had a lot of random people emailing me asking for the name of my Chinese supplier.

[Sean Ramasur]

Because there's an implication in your piece that this is a great way to get rich.

[Ezra Marcus]

Well, no, because they wanted to buy and use peptides for themselves. I heard from other people that were like, oh yeah, my cousin took this and like had kidney issues. I heard of some of that and I heard a lot of people just basically being like, okay, so should I do it? And I was like, I mean, the kind of, the whole point of the piece is like, I don't know. And I don't think anyone really does. You know that this is, this is a total wild west. And you know when people are telling you about it on social media, that's because they're making money off of that and they're not experts. There's just these like economies of people with skin in the game trying to pump their bag essentially. And that, you know, basically buyer beware. At the same time, these things have real effects.

[Sean Ramasur]

You can read life on peptides feels amazing on nymag.com, it's a good read. The FDA would like to make it easier for you to shoot peptides. The view from Washington when we return on Today Explained.

[Unidentified Industry Insider]

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[Unidentified Advertiser/Promoter]

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[Unidentified Wellness Enthusiast]

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[Sean Ramasur]

Support for the show comes from Anthropic, the team behind Claude. Do you know Claude? There's a reason you listen to the show. You want to actually understand what's going on, not just hear a headline. Thanks for listening. Anthropic's Claude works the same way. It doesn't flatten a complex topic into one neat take. It helps you think through the nuance challenges where your logic is thin and follows the threads most tools skip past. Deep research pulls from dozens of sources, surfaces contradictions, and gives you a full breakdown you can actually trace. And it can help you get your work done. Cowork lets you point Claude at folders on your computer, notes, research documents, and it just starts working through them. Thanks, Claude. Anthropic was founded by scientists, FYI, who said they wanted AI that expands human thinking. FYI, you can see why problem solvers choose Claude as their thinking partner and try Claude free at Claude AI Todayexplained. Everything feels more expensive right now. That's why this matters. TikTok shop has a huge selection of products with surprising deals. You don't expect affordable fines for everyday life.

[Ezra Marcus]

Download TikTok now.

[Sean Ramasur]

Today Explain is back. I'm Sean Ramasur. I'm here with Lauren Gardner. She's an FDA and founder pharma policy reporter at Politico. Lauren, we just heard from this guy Ezra Marcus, about the growing popularity of peptides. Where does Uncle Sam stand on them?

[Lauren Gardner]

As of now, the United States government is generally not on board. But this is for specific peptides, the kind that I'm sure you were talking about with Ezra. So essentially what happened is the FDA reclassified a little more than a dozen of these peptides, basically saying we don't have enough safety information to confidently allow these things to be made for American consumers without stepping in here. So what this did was it moved several of these peptides to this agency list that refers to them as bulk drug substances that may present significant safety risks. Now, the thing about that is that in some cases, FDA really doesn't know whether they're safe or unsafe. They truly just don't have, or they say they don't have enough data to make that call.

[Sean Ramasur]

What happens in 2023 when FDA comes out and says without a whole lot of data, like some of these things are unsafe, we don't like them?

[Lauren Gardner]

According to several of these wellness influencers, compounding pharmacists who are big in this space, to them, they said this made their market essential, eventually dry up the

[Ezra Marcus]

peptide industry is collapsing. The US Government is stepping in and finally regulating peptides. If you are guys, I don't lie when I say things like this. I would get it while I can, because who knows if it's ever going to come back.

[Lauren Gardner]

A lot of these online platforms, you know, there's a wellness clinic side to it, and then they might be tied to a specific compounding pharmacy. So the compounding pharmacy being the entity that, you know, has a lab and they make these concoctions for people if they can get a prescription for them. By this action happening, the compounding pharmacies couldn't legally make them anymore. So instead people who had been getting them from providers, you know, wherever in the United States turned to kind of black and gray corners of the web.

[Sean Ramasur]

So FDA tries to come out and say, hey guys, we're really worried about these peptides. We're going to say maybe don't. And then. And everyone says, but I want to. And goes online to China, gets them. Sometimes they come disguised in the mail and uses them anyway. Surely that isn't the system we want. And the implication is that Robert Flourde Kennedy Jr. Wants to do something about it.

[Lauren Gardner]

Yes. So if you listen to Secretary Kennedy in some of his many podcast appearances, particularly on Joe Rogan during the Biden

[Unidentified Industry Insider]

administration, they illegally move those to category two, which says do not formulate. It was illegal. Because they're not supposed to do that unless there's a safety signal. And they didn't have a safety signal. They're not allowed to look at efficacy. They're not allowed to say, well, we don't believe these are efficacious or whatever. They can only look at safety. They move those category too, which means do not formulate.

[Lauren Gardner]

He recently referred to what the FDA did a few years ago. He called it illegal. So that kind of gets at the expectation that he is going to institute some kind of change here. The argument that he and many of his allies make who are big in this peptide space is that it's already a wild west out there in peptides. People are already getting this stuff and injecting it into themselves. Their argument is it's being done. We might as well A, have people have access to safe substances that they're injecting into themselves and B, have them be American made. So that's been a huge part of kind of the context swirling around this is that we've done it before. They say it was being done safely here until the FDA made this change two plus years ago. Let's go back to that and now we'll be in this situation where people will have more freedom to experiment with these types of things, but to do it in a way where they're under the care of a provider who's prescribing it to them. It's being made here in the US they'll know the sourcing of the ingredients. It'll just be. It'll be better all around for both consumer safety and the US Writ large.

[Sean Ramasur]

Okay, so RFK wants to do something about this. He is not the head of the Food and Drug Administration. When should we expect some decisive action to be taken on peptides in this country?

[Lauren Gardner]

There have been lots of indications from people who are very active in this space who, you know, talk to Secretary Kennedy, that something is coming on this. And that only ramped up more once the secretary went on Joe Rogan's podcast and basically said as much in February.

[Unidentified Industry Insider]

Oh, I'm very anxious to move not, probably not all of those peptides, some of them are in litigation, but about 14 of them back to making them more accessible. And FDA is in the middle of. I think within a couple of weeks, we will have announced some kind of new action and might.

[Lauren Gardner]

You know, I have been refreshing the webpage that would contain such an update for several weeks now, and nothing's changed. So, you know, this is the type of thing where there are, like, I's to be dotted and T's to be crossed on the FDA side. But also at the same time, what is expected here is that probably about a dozen or so of these peptides will be moved to another category where legally it's okay for them to be made. But it's not like the FDA is going to be saying, don't worry, they're safe or safe enough, like, it's no big deal. It essentially is. It's like a regulatory purgatory. The term of art in FDA parlance is enforcement discretion. But even once that happens, it doesn't necessarily mean it's the end of the road because someone can petition the FDA to do something more formal on it, and then that would unleash a whole separate regulatory process that would take probably years to go through.

[Sean Ramasur]

How soon is it, do you think, before we see, like, the next GLP1 situation here in Peptide Town? Because it feels like insulin, pretty big deal. All these weight loss drugs, pretty big deal. And then there's like a lot of fringy stuff going on that Ezra mentioned and that you talked about too. Is it only a matter of time before we see the next huge Peptide trend or do you think this is like a passing fad?

[Lauren Gardner]

It does seem like there is some kind of craze to be capitalized on here. But whether it's going to be one or two of these in particular or just a giant class of these substances that people are just going to be flocking to telehealth sites like Himss for, I think that's kind of the open question. I think a lot of it's going to come down to how many legit actors start to step into this space. And by that I mean in particular the telehealth platforms like Hims ro, the ones that you see a lot of advertisements for on TV or online, how many of them get into this? Because telehealth has also democratized access to things like GLP1s in a way that has fundamentally changed the industry. And I think that's how a lot of people would be accessing peptides as well, because it's. You can easily access a provider and don't necessarily have to look up some wellness clinic in whatever area you happen to live in and see if there's someone who has any idea how BBC 157 works or might work for you.

[Sean Ramasur]

But one thing that feels true of like our current experience as a society with GLP1s right now and what Ezra wrote about with his experience just trying a bunch of stuff out is that like we are all just guinea pigs right now until the government figures this out or even once they do, it

[Lauren Gardner]

feels like, yeah, and these things aren't without risk. And I do think that can get lost in the conversation. For instance, there was a case last summer of two women going to a wellness conference in Las Vegas and they ended up getting really, really sick after they were injected with peptides there at this festival. And just earlier in March, Nevada regulators find three people who played a role in offering peptides to attendees of this anti aging conference. So they're certainly not without risk. And I think what is TBD is to what extent will people as like the pool of consumers taking these sorts of things? How many people are going to experience bad reactions like that versus, you know, on the flip side of the coin, actually see benefits? Or is it all just one big placebo effect? How will that be measured? Who knows?

[Sean Ramasur]

Watch this space to find out.

[Lauren Gardner]

Exactly.

[Unidentified Industry Insider]

Okay,

[Sean Ramasur]

Read Lauren [e-mail] Find Miles Bryan, Danielle Hewitt, Aminah Al Saadi, David Tadashore, Patrick Boyd and Andrea lopez [e-mail] this is today expl.