The receipts

Peptides, by the numbers

The figures below aren't opinion - they're a paper trail: demand, the unregulated grey market, and the safety record, each linked to a primary source. They're also why Peppies argues a legal, tested pathway is safer than the status quo - that conclusion is ours; the data is not. Reporters are welcome to cite the figures; please verify against the linked source.

Demand is large and growing

~$328M

U.S. imports of peptide and hormone compounds from China in the first three quarters of 2025 - roughly double the year before.

U.S. customs data, via The Week, 2026

$100M+

Estimated annual run-rate of the on-chain grey-market peptide trade - with first-quarter 2026 inflows up more than 150%.

Chainalysis, 2026

Peptides an FDA advisory committee will review on July 23-24, 2026 for a legal compounding pathway: BPC-157, KPV, TB-500, MOTS-c, DSIP/Emideltide, Semax, Epitalon.

FDA meeting notice

The unregulated product is often not what its label says

5%-75%

Purity range found when researchers tested falsified peptide products - with arsenic and lead above the limits set for injectable drugs.

Janvier et al., Talanta, 2018

BPC-157, TB-500 & more

Peptides named in a 2026 ECRI & ISMP patient-safety white paper warning that grey-market products carry contamination and dosing risks.

ECRI & ISMP, 2026

The FDA's own words

"[The agency] lacks sufficient information to know whether the drug would cause harm when administered to humans."
- FDA briefing documents for the July 2026 peptide review, on the substances before the committee. Source

This is the heart of the matter, and it cuts both ways: because these substances aren't well-characterized even in principle, the unregulated market - where no one checks identity, potency, or sterility - is where the real danger lies.

Enforcement can't keep up

$1.79M

Forfeited by a Kentucky compounding pharmacy that pleaded guilty to distributing unapproved drugs including BPC-157, DSIP, Epitalon and Semax.

U.S. DOJ, 2020

8 of 14

Retatrutide vendors that had received FDA warning letters were still actively selling months later - enforcement "stalled at the warning-letter stage."

CBS News investigation, via Medscape, 2026

265%

Rise in U.S. poison-center exposures tied to one grey-market weight-loss peptide (retatrutide - not one of the seven, but a vivid case of what happens with no legal supply) in early 2026.

CBS News investigation, via Medscape, 2026

Retatrutide: why it's different

You'll see "retatrutide" sold across the grey market - it drives the 265% spike above. Here's what it actually is: an investigational triple-hormone drug developed and owned by Eli Lilly. It is not FDA-approved and is not legally sold anywhere - it's still in clinical trials. So every "retatrutide" vial online today is unregulated, untested product with no guarantee of what's in it. And unlike the older peptides under FDA review - off-patent molecules a licensed pharmacy could one day compound - retatrutide is a patented, proprietary medicine. When it's approved, the safe and legal way to get it will be through legitimate, licensed channels, not a website. If you're waiting on retatrutide, the answer isn't the grey market - it's the approval process doing its job. Status →

Coming soon

Poll →

A national Mason-Dixon survey - commissioned by Peppies - of U.S. adults on legal pharmacy access, the grey market, and trust in the FDA. Topline and crosstabs forthcoming.

See the poll page

Sourcing note. Every figure links to its origin. Where a statistic comes from reporting on the broader grey market (rather than the seven peptides specifically), we say so. Peppies is independent, does not sell peptides, and makes no claim any peptide treats or cures anything.