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Here’s a new trend that sounds unwise: buying unregulated substances from dealers in foreign countries and injecting them into your body.
And yet, grey-market injectable peptides – a category of substances with obscure, alphanumeric names like BPC-157, GHK-Cu, or TB-500 – have developed a devoted following among biohackers and health optimizers.
Across platforms like Discord and Telegram, users are claiming these peptides help with everything from injury recovery, athletic performance, weight loss, mental function, better sleep and younger-looking skin.
Among the risk-tolerant tech workers of the Bay Area, peptides have become akin to a status symbol. The founders of the startup Superpower store vials of peptides in their office fridge for convenient, lunchtime backside injections, and at least one San Francisco “peptide rave” has seen partygoers entertained by a lab-coated man demonstrating how to inject liquid peptides.
What are injectable peptides, exactly?
Peptides are short chains of amino acids – smaller versions of proteins – that play a role in regulating hormones, releasing neurotransmitters and repairing tissue, explains Adam Taylor, director of the Clinical Anatomy Learning Centre at Lancaster University. More than 100 Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs are peptide-based, including insulin and newer GLP-1 medications like Ozempic.
Grey-market injectable peptides, on the other hand, are unapproved by the FDA. The unregulated, experimental compounds lack reliable safety data and quality control. Sometimes, these substances are essentially bootleg versions of approved drugs, like semaglutide, but are procured for a fraction of their market price from dealers online.
While some injectable peptides are entirely foreign to the human body, others, like BPC-157 and TB-500, are synthetic versions of proteins that naturally occur in us, where they play a role in tissue and cellular repair.
“Those two are popular because when you combine them, they’ve been given the exciting name ‘Wolverine stack’, based on the supposed similarities to the film character’s regenerative properties,” says Taylor.
But just because a protein has a natural role in the body doesn’t mean that a lab-made version will confer extra benefits. “Those two compounds alone have never been shown to have any benefit to justify them being used therapeutically in humans,” says Taylor.
While preclinical animal and in vitro studies suggest some peptides may help speed recovery from musculoskeletal injuries like fractures and torn ligaments, animal studies don’t always translate to humans.
“We’re not seeing data that’s setting the world alight,” says Taylor.
So far, research trials haven’t prompted regulatory agencies to approve these substances or convinced companies to invest in further development. “Obviously [pharmaceutical companies] don’t see it as a market worth the research and development costs,” Taylor says.
What are the risks of injecting grey-market peptides?
The FDA warns they pose “serious safety risks”, including allergic reactions. The federal agency has banned their production by US compounding pharmacies, though personal use is legal.
The risks of injecting grey-market peptides begin with their lack of precision. These substances can’t be targeted to a specific area and may instead “activate pathways in tissues and systems that are actually detrimental to health”, says Taylor.
Because these proteins are associated with tissue growth, there is a risk that if you’ve got an early-stage cancer developing that you didn’t know about, peptides could accelerate its advancement, he says.
Other risks include acromegaly, an excess of growth hormone that leads to the problematic enlargement of bones, cartilage and organs. And botching a DIY injection can cause muscle paralysis, scarring and sepsis.
Furthermore, the “label of chemically identical is often misleading”, says Nitai Gelber, a Toronto-based sports medicine physician. A peptide may contain a portion of protein chemically identical to something our bodies naturally produce, but “there’s often other components that are added to that molecule as well,” Gelber said, to aid in absorption, its mechanism of action or to prevent degradation. Those additions raise the risk of allergic or adverse reactions.
Anecdotally, Taylor has heard complaints from people linking their grey-market peptide use to rashes, numbness and mood shifts.
In July, two women were hospitalized with swollen tongues, breathing problems and elevated heart rates after peptide injections at a Las Vegas anti-ageing festival. The exact peptides involved are unknown.
How are people getting them if they’re banned in the US?
Grey-market peptides are typically sold online and labelled “for research purposes only”, as a legal loophole.
A large proportion come from China, where imports of hormone and peptide compounds have increased dramatically: US customs data shows they hit $328m in the first three-quarters of 2025, up from $164m in the same period the previous year, the New York Times reported.
Some people source their peptides through stateside “wellness clinics” that import and redistribute the substances, potentially advertising purity testing as an add-on for safer supply.
But at this point, such promises mean little. “People are signing the paperwork that says they understand the risks,” and that removes the supplier’s liability, explains Taylor. As research on peptides advances slowly, in the meantime, “people are actually converting themselves into the guinea pigs or the lab rats,” Taylor says.
Who is seeking them?
Gelber says he’s seen a sharp rise in interest from both athletes and non-athletes, younger and older patients alike, though predominantly men and teenage boys seeking more muscular physiques. “Over the last year it’s been nonstop,” he says of patients asking him about injectable peptides, which rarely came up before 2023, he says.
Dr Avinish Reddy, a longevity-focused concierge physician based in Los Angeles, notes a similar increase in interest. “It’s become very common for patients to tell me they have friends taking a certain peptide and that they ‘swear by it’,” he says.
Both doctors believe social media promoting unrealistic body aesthetics, hype from influencers such as Gary Brecka and Joe Rogan, and frustration with the slow pace of conventional injury recovery are factors behind interest in products.
When patients come to Reddy and Gelber using grey-market peptides, both doctors recommend they stop, and offer harm reduction advice to those who won’t. “If you’re using something experimental, your doctor needs to know so side effects aren’t missed or blamed on the wrong thing,” Reddy says.
Additionally, he advises them to watch for warning signs. “If you develop fevers, reactions at the injection site, chest symptoms or new neurologic symptoms, stop immediately and seek medical care,” he says. He also warns against stacking multiple experimental products, which makes it “much harder to know what’s helping or harming you”.
Injuries are often best managed via proper diagnosis, rehabilitation, training, sleep and nutrition, Reddy says. The dubious promise of peptides as cure-all supersubstances can distract patients from the fundamentals of long-term care.
