April 15 (UPI) — The Food and Drug Administration is considering lifting restrictions on some peptide injections, supplements heralded by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a notice in the Federal Register posted Wednesday indicated.
It would be the first step in possibly allowing compounding pharmacies to manufacture seven peptides used to treat ulcerative colitis, wound healing, obesity, insomnia and other conditions, the notice read.
The FDA’s expert advisory panel on pharmacy compounding is set to meet about the approval of peptides in late July. The Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee also plans to consider another five peptides before February 2027.
The FDA currently restricts the use of the injections due to safety concerns and a lack of testing, The Hill reported.
There’s been a growing interest in peptide injections, which are chains of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, to treat a variety of conditions. In particular, they’ve become popular among anti-aging and health proponents and influencers.
But the idea of using peptides as a form of therapy dates back to the creation of insulin, which was created in the 1920s as a synthetic peptide, according to WebMD. Weight-loss drugs known as GLP-1s are also a form of peptide — glucagon-like peptide-1.
The Washington Post reported that some proponents of peptide injections support a trend called “peptide stacking” in which they use combinations of the amino acids.
Scott Brunner, the CEO of the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding trade group, told the Post that some people are selling unapproved peptides to customers without a prescription.
“Compounding pharmacies are being hammered by patients and prescribers to prepare these peptide drugs, and legally, they can’t do it. Not yet anyway,” he said.
“And that is stimulating the illicit, non-pharmacy actors in the gray market.”
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