BPC-157 5 mg vial dosage

What BPC-157 is

Class:

Synthetic pentadecapeptide

Also called:

Body Protection Compound 157, PL 14736, PL-10, Bepecin

Used for:

Studied in rodents for musculoskeletal soft-tissue healing. Sold to humans for injury recovery, a use whose only human data is one uncontrolled retrospective chart review of 17 people with knee pain.

Human evidence:

Limited human data. Rodent-dominated for efficacy: no BPC-157 study is indexed in PubMed under a clinical-trial or randomized-controlled-trial publication type (queried 2026-07-15). The published human experience is five small studies totalling roughly 80 people. The only randomized placebo-controlled trial in patients - 53 people, ulcerative colitis - was never published beyond a meeting abstract, and its between-group difference spanned zero. So human evidence exists; it is tiny and null, which is not the same as absent.

US status:

Research use only. Not FDA-approved for any indication in the US. Sold as a research chemical and not legally marketed for human use. Prohibited at all times in sport under the WADA 2026 Prohibited List, section S0 (Non-Approved Substances). FDA staff proposed not adding it to the 503A Bulks List. On 23 July 2026 the Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee voted 8-6, with one abstention, to recommend adding it; the vote is advisory, and as of 3 October 2026 no Federal Register rule has added it, so it is not presently eligible for lawful 503A compounding.

The full picture, with every study: BPC-157 guide.

How to mix a 5 mg BPC-157 vial

For this vial: 1 mL of bacteriostatic water makes 5 mg/mL, so 400 mcg is 8 units (0.08 mL) on a U-100 insulin syringe. Pick a different volume from the units table if you want bigger or smaller draws; the number of doses stays the same.

1. Wipe the rubber stoppers of both the peptide vial and the bacteriostatic water vial with an alcohol swab and let the alcohol dry. ^[3][4]
2. With a new sterile needle and syringe, draw up the amount of bacteriostatic water you have chosen for the dilution. ^[3][4][5]
3. Inject the water into the peptide vial by aiming the stream against the inside glass wall, which helps prevent foaming. ^[6]
4. Swirl or roll the vial gently until the powder has fully dissolved; do not shake it. Do not inject the solution if it is cloudy or has particles in it. ^[3][4][6]
5. Label the vial with the date and time it was mixed, the amount of water added and how long it can be used after mixing. ^[3]
6. Store the mixed vial in the refrigerator at 2-8°C (36-46°F) and do not freeze it. ^[6]

Step by step with pictures: how to reconstitute peptides. About the water itself: bacteriostatic water.

Storing BPC-157 vials

• Freeze-dried (lyophilized) peptide keeps far longer than peptide in solution; peptide suppliers advise storing the powder at -20°C away from bright light. ^[7]
• Protect peptide vials from heat and light. ^[7][8]
• Avoid repeated freeze-thaw cycles; a prescription peptide label also says not to freeze a vial once it has been mixed. ^[6][7]
• Once a multi-dose vial, such as bacteriostatic water, has been opened (needle-punctured), date it and discard it within 28 days unless its manufacturer states another date. ^[9][10]

More detail: peptide storage and shelf life.

Injecting safely

• Clean the injection site with an alcohol swab and let the skin dry completely before injecting. ^[11][12]
• Pinch up a fold of skin and fat (not muscle) and insert the needle at a 45- to 90-degree angle: 90 degrees where there is enough fatty tissue, 45 degrees where there is little. ^[11][12][13]
• Pulling back on the plunger (aspiration) is not necessary for a subcutaneous injection, because the chance of the needle being in a blood vessel is small. ^[11]
• Inject slowly, at roughly 10 seconds per mL. ^[11]
• Common sites are the belly, the thigh and the upper arm; rotate sites, keeping each injection at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) from the last. ^[6][11][12]

Hygiene and warning signs

• Use a new sterile needle and syringe for every injection and every time you enter a vial; never reuse them. ^[5][9][12]
• Never share needles, syringes or pens with anyone, even if the needle is changed; unsafe injection practices spread hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV. ^[5][8][9]
• Put used needles and syringes in a sharps disposal container straight away (FDA-cleared if possible), never loose in the trash, recycling or toilet, and dispose of the container following your community's guidelines. ^[14][15]
• Contact a health care provider if the injection site shows signs of infection, such as redness, swelling, red streaks or a fever. ^[12]

Where to inject: subcutaneous injection sites.

How BPC-157 works

• BPC-157 is a synthetic chain of 15 amino acids (Gly-Glu-Pro-Pro-Pro-Gly-Lys-Pro-Ala-Asp-Asp-Ala-Gly-Leu-Val). It is a fragment of a larger protein, called BPC, that was first isolated from human gastric juice. ^[16][17]
• A 2025 review describes a proposed mechanism running through nitric oxide, dopamine and VEGF-receptor (blood-vessel growth) pathways. This comes from animal and laboratory work and has not been shown in people. ^[17]
• An independent group found that BPC-157 raised levels of the VEGFR2 receptor, but not its signal VEGF-A, in human blood-vessel cells grown in the lab, and switched on the VEGFR2-Akt-eNOS signalling chain that drives new vessel growth. It also increased vessel formation in chick embryo membranes and in rats with restricted leg blood flow. ^[18]

What the BPC-157 research found

Human evidence: limited human data. Each result says what was studied.

• Animal studyA 2019 review of the tendon, ligament and muscle literature found that BPC-157 studies consistently reported faster healing, but most were in small rodent models, only a handful of research groups had studied it in depth, and its efficacy had not been confirmed in humans. ^[19]
• Animal studyIn a 2026 study of 32 rats with a cut and repaired Achilles tendon, BPC-157 given for four weeks improved tendon strength and tissue scores only numerically, not significantly, against untreated controls. TB-500 did reach significance, and giving both together added nothing over either alone. ^[20]
• Regulator reviewThe only randomised placebo-controlled trial in patients, 53 people with ulcerative colitis given a BPC-157 enema or placebo daily for two weeks, exists only as a 2005 meeting abstract. Disease activity fell 3.2 points on BPC-157 and 1.6 on placebo, and the confidence interval for the difference between groups crossed zero. ^[16]
• Human studyIn an uncontrolled 2024 pilot, 12 women with interstitial cystitis that had not responded to pentosan polysulfate had BPC-157 injected around the inflamed bladder area during a single cystoscopy; 10 reported complete symptom resolution and 2 reported about 80% improvement. ^[21]
• Human studyA retrospective chart review of 17 people given knee injections of BPC-157, alone or with thymosin beta-4, reached 16 by phone months later; 14 of the 16 (87.5%) reported pain relief. There was no control group and no standard outcome measure. ^[22]
• Regulator reviewIn the two studies that gave BPC-157 as an enema and measured blood levels, the authors reported it was not detected in plasma, or in one abstract mostly below the assay's limit. FDA found no human pharmacokinetic data for oral, under-the-skin, nasal or skin routes. ^[16]

BPC-157 side effects and risks

No long-term human safety study of BPC-157 exists; everything below comes from a handful of small, short studies and voluntary adverse-event reports.

• Regulator reviewAcross the five published human studies (roughly 80 people, all short courses), FDA found no reported serious adverse events, but noted the studies were small and brief and gave little information on how safety was monitored. ^[16]
• Regulator reviewIn the enema studies in healthy volunteers, the most frequently reported adverse events were headache and flatulence. ^[16]
• Regulator reviewFDA's adverse-event database held three reports up to December 2025, all involving injected products: redness and swelling at the injection site (the person was also injecting thymosin), shortness of breath leading to an emergency visit, and widespread skin and gum darkening that came back when the person used a BPC-157 and TB-500 product again. FDA could not confirm BPC-157 caused any of them. ^[16]
• Human studyIn a two-person pilot, intravenous infusions of 10 mg and then 20 mg on consecutive days caused no measurable change in heart, liver, kidney, thyroid or blood-sugar markers, and neither participant reported side effects. ^[23]

Other things to know

• No long-term human safety data exist. Reviews report few adverse reactions in animal models, but absence of reported harm in rodents is not evidence of safety in people.
• FDA states that compounded drugs containing BPC-157 may pose a risk for immunogenicity for certain routes of administration and may have complexities with regard to peptide-related impurities and active pharmaceutical ingredient characterization, and that it has identified no, or only limited, safety-related information for the proposed routes.
• No human half-life has been established, so there is no evidence-based basis for any dosing interval. Rat half-life figures circulate in secondary sources; I could not verify a primary source for them and do not publish them.
• Prohibited at all times in sport (WADA S0). One of the reviews cited on this page states BPC-157 is not banned by WADA; that statement is incorrect as of the 2026 list.

Reported side effects and what the studies measured: BPC-157 side effects.

Where this vial size comes from

BPC-157 is sold as a 5 mg vial by the pages below, each checked on the date shown. I list them as evidence that this size exists, not as a recommendation to buy from them.

• Spartan PeptidesvendorLists it as: Size dropdown options: 5mg / 10mg · checked 2026-09-28
• Next Level PharmvendorLists it as: Size dropdown options: 5mg / 10mg · checked 2026-09-28

The doses come from the sourced common protocol on the BPC-157 dosing page, and every number on this page is arithmetic on those doses and this vial size.

Other BPC-157 vial sizes

• 5 mg
• 10 mg vial
• 20 mg vial
• 40 mg vial

Where to buy BPC-157 for research

Sold for research use only. Listed by Next Level Pharm, Spartan Peptides and BioEdge Research Labs; compare them on my vendors page or see the listing on the BPC-157 page.

Questions

How much water do I add to a 5 mg BPC-157 vial?

There is no single correct amount: water changes how many units a dose is, not how many doses the vial holds. With 1 mL the vial is 5 mg/mL and 400 mcg is 8 units (0.08 mL) on a U-100 insulin syringe. The units table gives 1, 2, 5 mL.

How many doses are in a 5 mg BPC-157 vial?

20 doses at 250 mcg, 12 doses at 400 mcg, 10 doses at 500 mcg.

How long does a 5 mg BPC-157 vial last?

At 400 mcg a dose and once or twice daily, about 0.9-1.7 weeks. How long a mixed vial keeps is a separate limit; see storage below.

How many 5 mg vials do I need for a cycle?

2 vials at 250 mcg 7 times a week for 4 weeks; 12 vials at 500 mcg 14 times a week for 8 weeks.

What does 1 unit equal in a 5 mg BPC-157 vial?

50 mcg with 1 mL, 25 mcg with 2 mL, 10 mcg with 5 mL of bacteriostatic water, on a U-100 syringe.