This community was inspired by our own frustration in navigating the unregulated peptide research community. In doing so, we have compiled information about sourcing peptides, their legality, and the regulatory paradigm that surrounds the actual transaction (payment) for research peptides. When the broader peptide research community also learns about these facets, it will contribute to maintaining the legality and thus availability of research peptides.
ARE PEPTIDES ILLEGAL?
Peptides sold, obtained, and possessed for laboratory, research, and analytical purposes are generally legal. Laws and regulations will vary based on country and geographical location.
It is illegal to sell, buy, possess, and utilize peptides for purposes other than the aforementioned.
HOW TO SOURCE RESEARCH PEPTIDES?
We’ve noticed that many peptide researchers are often inspired by information they hear about on social media, blogs, or in videos. However, oftentimes inadequate research is done in advance of acquiring or attempting to acquire peptides. This puts risk on the individual and on the broader peptide research community.
Research peptides can be obtained from online sources. They can also be obtained by a licensed professional at various clinics (both online and brick and mortar). It is very important to note that just because a clinic prescribes and/or sells peptides, they are almost invariably still sourced from overseas and there is no assurance of quality control. .
For the purposes of our research and this website, we only do laboratory testing on US peptide suppliers. We also only use US testing laboratories (currently, we use two of them).
If you found this community but are interested in peptides for medical use, please consult with a licensed medical professional.
The reason that many people appear not to do this, is that it can be very expensive, difficult to qualify, and not all peptides of interest may be available or indicated.
There are many online research peptide vendors, particularly lately. This is not inherently a good thing as it dilutes the pressure on any given vendor to perform rigorous quality control. Without third party testing, it is virtually impossible to know what you’re getting. Again, this was one of our primary inspirations for starting this community.
The vast majority of vendors are sourcing their peptides from China. A very small number of vendors are manufacturing them in the US. Small batch peptide synthesis has an approximate equipment (not including trained personnel) cost of over half a million dollars. Smaller or less experienced (newer) vendors are unlikely to be doing this. However, if one can identify vendors who are doing this, it is a very good idea in our experience.
Unlike testing one’s luck by ordering small-ish quantities of peptides from overseas, US vendors will provide some of the following additional benefits:
The vendor does all of the work – they do customer service and fulfil orders much more quickly than any sort of international import. They (hopefully) provide replacements when things go wrong. This gives the customer some assurance because there is an entity attached to the order.
They are also less expensive than when obtained from a clinic.
Fortunately or unfortunately, due to research peptides being unregulated, anyone can essentially be a “vendor” without oversight. At the same time, the customer is still likely receiving the same peptide they would have otherwise obtained from overseas themselves. Note – many people think that reliable overseas vendors will sell retail quantity numbers of peptides directly to consumers. This is rarely true, and often leads to being scammed.
This has left a gap for many bad actors to enter the space.
This doesn't mean that all vendors are getting quality peptides from China/overseas either. Some have been shown by researchers to either be dosed in inefficacious amounts, contain none of the actual compound that it should, and/or have completely different compounds than it claims to have.
You can read more about buying from Chinese suppliers here.
PEPTIDE SOURCING CHECKLIST
- 3RD PARTY CERTIFICATE OF ANALYSIS (COA)
Even when a COA is posted by a vendor, it’s important that it is somehow verifiable. There is a large percentage of photoshopped/fake COAs posted online by vendors and affiliates. For this reason, some legitimate vendors do not post COAs on their website, but make them available upon request.
When reading a COA, purity tells you about the quality of the peptide. This confirms that they gave you the correct product.
Purity is usually more than adequate when comparing or testing peptides. It will give you a general idea about what is in your product and it can still be cost effective.
When also testing for quantity, it gets a lot more expensive. Vendors most typically rely on the tests they received from their Chinese suppliers instead of doing it themselves through a 3rd party lab. These tests cost several times more than purity-only tests, and are not often done.
It is easy for vendors to fake test results that they say they performed themselves. Others fake test results from labs to make it seem like they are 3rd party tested. This makes it important to be able to verify test results.
The lab tests that we have performed are done with testing facilities in the US who we can trust.
- FORUM
The next best place to find information about vendors would be on forums. Namely this subreddit and our website.
Search through Reddit and see what others have said about their experiences with brands. Namely the customer service, scams, and shipping. These are anecdotal reports, and while we make a strong effort to hedge against vendor solicitation influencing these anecdotes, it is still possible that “recommendations” made by users are some forms of solicitation.
We don't see anecdotal posts or comments as a credible source for dictating the quality of a vendor. There is no way to prove their suggestion.
We have been doing our own anonymous buying from vendors and sending those samples in for testing. You can view these test results on our forum here.
We prefer to keep everything evidence based and let the COAs and tests speak for themselves.
WARNINGS
While you are looking for where to source your research peptides, you are more than likely going to see ads, chat requests, and comments/replies from vendors trying to manipulate users.
We advise you to be smart with engaging with anyone that engages with you for the aforementioned purposes. Check their post history and karma at very minimum (not always indicative of anything, but helpful).
A rule of thumb is that if anyone pushes in favor of, or against a vendor to a strong degree, likely has a vested interest as a vendor or affiliate.
Some vendors are not happy with the work we have been doing. They know they may be selling low quality peptides and they fear that we will randomly run a lab test on their products.
PURCHASING
Many peptide researchers do not understand that it can be difficult to obtain peptides from a payment perspective. We have an article about this here. In short, banks are the intermediary between merchants (vendors) and the credit/debit card brands. Based on rules and guidance from the card brands, banks make policies on what types of product/service types can be offered by merchants (vendors) for card transactions.
Many vendors who offer direct traditional card payment options for research peptides are engaging in what is called transaction laundering. This is the act of misrepresenting, in one or more ways, what they are selling to their bank/payment processor. This comes with serious legal risks that in some cases, can extend to the customers unknowingly.
When customers insist on using their card to buy research chemicals, they are creating the need for vendors to heavily focus on the huge hassle of payments, instead of things like customer service and quality control. All of the payment work-arounds like CashApp, PayPal, Venmo, etc. are also unsustainable. Once those companies realize that their apps are being used to facilitate the sale of these items, the accounts will get shut down. The only sustainable method for vendors and for customers is cryptocurrency.
Cryptocurrency is not difficult to use, and it removes middle men from a transaction so the customer and vendor can transact without requiring “permission” from an intermediary. You can buy cryptocurrency with a debit card or bank account easily. You will notice that vendors often incentivize the use of this payment method with discounts or by other means. Many vendors also add fees to be able to use some kind of card payment method. There is a reason for this.
Any peptide researcher/customer should be part of the solution, not part of the problem. We don’t want a community of peptide vendors who are fixated on payments to lure in buyers versus fixated on quality control, sustainability, regulatory compliance (legal, and banking/payment compliance).
ENDNOTES
We hope that you find this community and its content valuable and helpful.
If you have had any good or bad experiences, please write up a review and post it.
DISCLAIMER
While we strive to always provide accurate, current, and safe advice in all of our posts, it’s important to stress that they are no substitute for medical advice from a doctor or healthcare provider. You should always consult a licensed healthcare/medical professional. The content we’ve included in this guide is merely meant to be informational and does not constitute medical advice. Peptides that are available to the vast majority of consumers are for research and laboratory use only. Only vendors that strictly adhere to this legal framework should be trusted, and NO VENDOR that insinuates or promotes (directly or indirectly) human use/consumption of peptides should not be supported by anyone in the peptide community, period. Particularly if the community would like these peptides to remain legally available for research and laboratory use without further regulatory intervention.
