Peptides Are Everywhere. Businesses Are Cashing In.

The Journal.

The podcast explores the booming, unregulated peptide market fueled by social media influencers, celebrity endorsements, and rising demand for longevity and wellness solutions. Despite safety concerns and lack of FDA app

Key takeaways

• BPC 157 and TB 500 are marketed as the 'Wolverine stack' for accelerated healing and reduced inflammation

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Do you want glowing skin, bigger muscles, healthier hair? On social media, the answer you'll likely get for all of that is peptides. If you're someone who's wanting to get sexy for summer, these are the top five peps to get for summer. I only take two peptides to make my skin look like this. You could be lean, in shape, and tan this summer. Basically, you take them, they're going to heal injuries up to like three to four times as fast as they would heal on their own. Like how insane my skin has been looking on BPC 157. I could go on and on and on and on. There is a pep for every problem. Peptides, often sold as injectables, are a massive trend, fueled by influencers and celebrities like Joe Rogan and Gwyneth Paltrow. Despite their popularity, though, most peptides are being sold in the U.S. without regulatory oversight, making them a controversial subject in medical circles. Our colleague Sarah O'Brien has been reporting on this wellness craze. People are largely getting these peptides on the internet. They're ordering them from sellers that are largely abroad and are mixing them and injecting them at home, oftentimes without a doctor's supervision at all. But now, the Food and Drug Administration under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is talking about recategorizing several of these experimental peptides, potentially making them more accessible for a lot of people. How would you describe this moment for the peptides market? It's on the cusp of change. We don't know what the FDA will ultimately do, but it certainly looks like they are interested in potentially making a change here and making these peptides more available to people. And the wellness industry is keeping a close eye. Businesses, including some of the biggest players in tech, Telehealth are gearing up for a peptide gold rush, already investing millions of dollars into the space. A lot of companies are seeing the business opportunity here. They're really seeing dollar signs that could come. And some businesses aren't waiting around for permission. They're sort of moving full force ahead to try to capitalize. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Thursday, July 30th. Coming up on the show, businesses are ready to cash in on peptides. The city moves fast, but your vibe, that's different. Sharper, smoother, more alive. I just a boy, oh, habatuck you in this wild night, a pyrn't me say, my voice. The new Honda City isn't just made to drive, it's made to feel. The New Honda City, new vibe. Our bodies make and use peptides naturally all the time. They're chains of amino acids that do all kinds of things, like regulate your sleep or metabolism. Insulin is a peptide, so are endorphins. What you're seeing on social media are manufactured peptides that claim to enhance some of those same body functions. The ones that a lot of people are talking about come in injection form, but they also come in the form of nasal sprays or transdermal patches. So there's sort of like a range of formulations, although I would say the most popular ones that you're hearing about are injections. Let's back up a little bit here. How did the peptide craze start? Yeah, so, you know, some of these peptides have been used for quite some time in biohacking. Circles with bodybuilder types. They're ones that, you know, have been around for maybe a decade. but they have gotten a lot more attention in part due to the popularity of GLP1 medications. GLP1 is a peptide. Now the GLP1 drugs that you hear about like Ozembic, these are FDA-approved drugs that went through lengthy clinical trials. But it has sort of had this effect of, you know, the popularity and the success of those drugs, people saw also like the weight loss improvements and thought like, huh, is there anything else?