FDA panel backs compounded BPC-157, KPV peptides in win for RFK Jr.

Lizzy leads STAT’s coverage of the FDA. Her stories explore the relationship between politics and science at the FDA, industry influence, and the agency’s ability to protect and promote public health. Confidential tips can be sent on Signal at lizzylaw.53.

In a win for peptide proponents and for health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration recommended on Thursday that compounding pharmacies be allowed to manufacture the drugs BPC-157 and KPV. 

The FDA will vote on two other peptides, TB-500 and MOTS-c, later on Thursday afternoon, and on additional compounds on Friday.

The votes are not binding, and the FDA will ultimately decide whether to lift current restrictions on these peptides and make them more easily accessible to people who’ve been turning to the little-researched but highly popular drugs to improve their health. It’s unusual for the FDA to go against the recommendations of the Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee, or PCAC, but it has happened at least once before.