Compounds

Each compound below carries the same four facts: which bucket it sits in, how strong the human evidence actually is, where it stands legally in the US and in Australia, and what could go wrong. Compare any three side by side.

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The table below is built from the same data as the compound pages themselves, so the two can never disagree.

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Side-by-side comparison of selected peptide compounds
Property	Research peptidesBPC-157Synthetic pentadecapeptide	PrescriptionSermorelinGHRH analogue (first 29 amino acids)
Primary use studied	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.	Marketed to adults for sleep, body composition and aging. Approved use was growth hormone deficiency in children.
Evidence	Limited human dataRodent-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 one - 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.	Limited human dataRandomised trials exist but sit in paediatric growth hormone deficiency, and the review reporting the treatment regimen hedges it as limited data with the effect on final adult height yet to be determined. The nearest adult evidence is an IGF-1 biomarker result in hypogonadal men. No randomised trial in healthy adults for the marketed outcomes was located.
Mechanism (proposed)	Reviews report a proposed mechanism involving nitric oxide synthase, dopamine regulation and VEGF-receptor pathways, which researchers propose drive granulation tissue and collagen formation. An independent group reported that BPC-157 upregulates VEGFR2 and activates VEGFR2-Akt-eNOS signalling in animal and in vitro models. This is a proposed mechanism drawn from preclinical work, not a demonstrated pathway in humans.	Acts on the pituitary to release the body own growth hormone rather than supplying growth hormone directly, so somatostatin feedback stays intact and release remains pulsatile. That is a genuine pharmacological difference from injected growth hormone, and it is a mechanism claim rather than an outcome.
Half-life	Not established in humans. Figures circulating online are not from published human pharmacokinetic studies.	Not established for the marketed adult use in humans
US legal status	Research use only · not for human use	FDA-approved · prescription only
AU legal status	Not on the ARTG	Not verified yet
Key risks	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; we 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.	Prohibited in sport at all times as a growth hormone releasing factor, and USADA states a therapeutic use exemption is highly unlikely to be approved. USADA names oedema of the arms, legs and face, joint and nerve pain, and growth-hormone-excess-driven insulin resistance; with chronic GH excess, hypertension, cardiac hypertrophy and potentially cardiomyopathy. The studied doses are weight-based and paediatric. The fixed adult doses circulating commercially are a different regimen, not a scaled version of the studied one. Black-market supply adds contamination and mislabelling risk on top of everything above.
Sources	[1] Gwyer D, Wragg NM, Wilson SL. Gastric pent… [2] Józwiak M, Bauer M, Kamysz W et al. Multif… [3] Hsieh MJ, Liu HT, Wang CN et al. Therapeut…	[1] Prakash A, Goa KL. Sermorelin: a review of… [2] Neyzi O, Yordam N, Ocal G et al. Growth re… [3] Trainer PJ, Palermo M, Kirk JM et al. Quan…

All compounds

BPC-157

Synthetic pentadecapeptide

aka Body Protection Compound 157 · PL 14736 · PL-10 · Bepecin

Research peptides

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.

Half-life: not established in humans

Sermorelin

GHRH analogue (first 29 amino acids)

aka GHRH(1-29)NH2 · Geref · Sermorelin acetate

Prescription / GLP-1

Marketed to adults for sleep, body composition and aging. Approved use was growth hormone deficiency in children.

Half-life: Not established for the marketed adult use in humans

TB-500

Synthetic heptapeptide fragment

aka Ac-LKKTETQ · Thymosin beta-4 fragment (17-23) · TB4 fragment

Research peptides

Marketed for tissue repair and injury recovery. We could not locate a completed, published human randomized trial for any musculoskeletal or tissue-repair indication.

Half-life: not established in humans

Tesamorelin

GHRH analogue

aka Egrifta · TH9507

Prescription / GLP-1

Approved for reducing excess visceral abdominal fat in people with HIV-associated lipodystrophy.

Half-life: not established in humans

PT-141

Melanocortin receptor agonist

aka Bremelanotide · Vyleesi

Prescription / GLP-1

Approved for premenopausal women with acquired, generalised hypoactive sexual desire disorder. Sold in grey channels predominantly to men.

Half-life: not established in humans

SS-31

Mitochondria-targeted tetrapeptide

aka Elamipretide · MTP-131 · Bendavia

Research peptides

Investigated for rare genetic mitochondrial disease. Sold online as a longevity and cellular-energy peptide.

Half-life: not established in humans

MOTS-c

Mitochondrial-derived peptide (16 amino acids)

aka Mitochondrial ORF of the 12S rRNA type-c · MOTS-C peptide

Research peptides

Sold for metabolic health, fat loss and longevity. Studied in humans as a biomarker of exercise response.

Half-life: not established in humans

Thymosin alpha-1

Immune-modulating peptide (28 amino acids)

aka Thymalfasin · Zadaxin · Ta1

Research peptides

Licensed in a number of countries, classically for chronic hepatitis B. Sold online for general immune support.

Half-life: not established in humans

Epitalon

Synthetic tetrapeptide (Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly)

aka Epithalon · Epithalamin · AEDG peptide

Research peptides

Sold for longevity and anti-aging on the basis of telomere research.

Half-life: not established in humans

Pinealon

Synthetic tripeptide (Glu-Asp-Arg)

aka EDR peptide · Glu-Asp-Arg

Research peptides

Sold for cognition, focus and healthy aging.

Half-life: not established in humans

Oxytocin

Nine-amino-acid peptide hormone

aka Pitocin · Syntocinon · Intranasal oxytocin

Prescription / GLP-1

An approved injectable medicine in obstetrics. Sold online as a nasal spray for libido, connection and anxiety.

Half-life: not established in humans

DSIP

Nonapeptide

aka Delta sleep-inducing peptide · Emideltide

Research peptides

Sold for sleep. Named in the 1970s after a proposed role in promoting delta-wave sleep.

Half-life: not established in humans

CJC-1295

Synthetic GHRH (1-29) analogue

aka CJC-1295 with DAC · CJC-1295 without DAC · Modified GRF (1-29) · mod GRF 1-29 · Tetrasubstituted GRF(1-29)

Research peptides

Investigated as a long-acting growth hormone-releasing hormone analogue to raise GH and IGF-I. Reached Phase 2 and was discontinued; never approved for any indication.

Half-life: DAC form: an estimated 5.8–8.1 days in healthy adults, per a published human pharmacokinetic study that is not yet in our source registry - so this page cannot link it, and the number should be treated as pending citation. Without-DAC form (mod GRF 1-29): not established in humans; no published human PK study located.

Selank

Tuftsin-derived heptapeptide

aka N-acetyl selank · Tuftsin analogue

Research peptides

Sold as a nootropic for focus, memory and mood. Used clinically within Russian medicine.

Half-life: not established in humans

Semax

ACTH-derived peptide

aka N-acetyl semax · ACTH(4-10) analogue

Research peptides

Sold as a nootropic for focus, memory and mood. Used clinically within Russian medicine.

Half-life: not established in humans

Ipamorelin

Pentapeptide growth hormone secretagogue

aka NNC 26-0161 · Aib-His-D-2-Nal-D-Phe-Lys-NH2

Research peptides

Investigated for postoperative ileus, reaching Phase 2 before being discontinued for insufficient efficacy. Marketed to consumers for growth hormone release, an application never approved anywhere.

Half-life: Likely around 2 hours (terminal), from a single Phase 1 pharmacokinetic study in healthy male volunteers. That study is paywalled and we could not retrieve it, so the figure reaches us only through a secondary source and is not independently verified. Treat it as likely, not established.

GHK-Cu

Copper tripeptide (carrier peptide)

aka Copper Tripeptide-1 · Copper peptide · Cu-GHK · Glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine copper(II)

Collagen & skin

Topical cosmetic anti-aging - fine lines, skin density and firmness, elasticity, photodamage, hyperpigmentation - and wound healing. Also marketed in hair-loss cosmetics.

Half-life: not established in humans

Full guide coming