Peptide News Digest

HHS Opens Pharmacy Access to BPC-157 and Five Other Peptides, Retatrutide Beats Ozempic, Lilly's Q3

HHS lets 503A pharmacies compound six unapproved peptides, retatrutide doubles Ozempic's weight loss, and employer GLP-1 coverage slips to 53%.

10 stories · Covering regulatory, clinical-trials, industry, research

Editor's Note

HHS's peptide policy moves BPC-157 and five other unapproved peptides from the gray market into licensed pharmacies without settling whether they work. The FDA's own scientists recommended against it in July, and the policy creates no approval, only a promise not to enforce. Pharmacies will have to certify ingredients and report side effects, which could give regulators safety data that the research-use-only market never produced. On the approved-drug side, Lilly's retatrutide roughly doubled Ozempic's weight loss in type 2 diabetes, though more people quit it for side effects, and Lilly raised its 2026 revenue forecast to $91 billion to $92 billion. Employers are moving the other way: WTW found coverage of GLP-1s for weight loss fell for the first time in three years, and 91% of employers dropping or weighing it cited cost.

Regulatory

HHS Will Let Compounding Pharmacies Make BPC-157, TB-500, and Four Other Unapproved Peptides Under a Temporary Policy

NPR reported Oct. 28 that HHS will not take enforcement action against small 503A compounding pharmacies that make BPC-157, TB-500, epitalon, KPV, MOTS-c, and semax. The policy is not an FDA approval and does not cover larger 503B outsourcing facilities; FDA scientists had recommended against lifting the restrictions in July. Public Citizen's Dr. Robert Steinbrook said Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "has undermined the FDA," while the president of a Florida compounding pharmacy told NPR, "We won't be able to meet demand."

#bpc-157 #tb-500 #compounding #peptide-policy #gray-market #rfk-jr
Clinical Trials

Lilly's Retatrutide Produced About Twice Ozempic's Weight Loss Over 80 Weeks in Adults With Type 2 Diabetes

ABC News reported that adults with type 2 diabetes lost about 44 pounds on retatrutide 9 mg and 47 pounds on 12 mg, versus about 21 pounds on Ozempic's top 2 mg dose, in a Phase 3 trial of more than 1,000 people. A1C fell 2.2 percentage points on retatrutide and 1.8 on Ozempic. Lilly's release showed more people stopped retatrutide for side effects (4.8% and 7.9%) than Ozempic (2.7%); the drug is not approved, and ABC said Lilly plans to file in early 2027.

#retatrutide #eli-lilly #ozempic #type-2-diabetes
Industry

Lilly's Third-Quarter Revenue Rose 39% to $24.4 Billion as Mounjaro Hit $10.7 Billion and Zepbound $5.4 Billion

Eli Lilly raised its 2026 revenue forecast to $91 billion to $92 billion, up from $85 billion to $87 billion. Mounjaro sales grew 65%, with $5.7 billion from outside the U.S., Zepbound grew 49%, and the oral GLP-1 Foundayo brought in $184 million. Lilly trimmed its full-year non-GAAP earnings guidance to $35.00 to $36.00 per share after $4.57 per share of acquired research charges in the quarter.

#eli-lilly #q3-2026-earnings #mounjaro #zepbound #foundayo
Industry

WTW Survey: Employer Coverage of GLP-1s for Weight Loss Fell From 57% to 53%, the First Drop in Three Years

WTW's 2026 Best Practices in Healthcare Survey of 471 U.S. employers with at least 100 workers found that 30% of those still covering the drugs are considering dropping them. Among employers that have dropped coverage or are weighing it, 91% cited cost. Employers project health costs to rise 11.1% in 2027 before plan changes and 9.7% after them.

#obesity-coverage #glp-1 #wegovy #zepbound
Research

Tirzepatide Linked to 20% Fewer Heart Failure Hospitalizations Than Semaglutide in 37,183 Adults With HFpEF and Type 2 Diabetes

A Brigham and Women's Hospital-led target trial emulation used two U.S. commercial claims databases to compare adults who started either drug between June 2022 and June 2025. Over a median 5.1 months, heart failure hospitalizations ran 19.7 versus 25.5 per 1,000 person-years (HR 0.80), but deaths were similar (HR 0.99). The study is observational with short follow-up.

#tirzepatide #semaglutide #hfpef #real-world-evidence #type-2-diabetes
Research

FAERS Analysis: Semaglutide Reports Cite Slowed Stomach Emptying, Bowel Blockage, and Optic Nerve Damage More Often Than Tirzepatide's

A Toros University analysis of 215,337 FDA adverse event reports from January 2022 to June 2026 found higher reporting odds for semaglutide than tirzepatide for impaired gastric emptying (6.39), intestinal obstruction (4.56), acute kidney injury (2.51), pancreatitis (2.18), and ischemic optic neuropathy (15.77). Hair loss was reported relatively more with tirzepatide. The author notes spontaneous reports show reporting patterns, not comparative risk or causation.

#faers #semaglutide #tirzepatide #drug-safety
Research

University of Belgrade Mouse Study: Three GLP-1 Drugs Eased Chronic Migraine-Like Pain About as Well as Propranolol

Pharmacologists triggered chronic migraine-like sensitivity in male and female mice with repeated nitroglycerin. Liraglutide, semaglutide, and dulaglutide each reduced it in a dose-dependent way without changing weight or glucose tolerance, while propranolol raised blood sugar in males. Naloxone partly blocked semaglutide's effect, pointing to opioid signaling; the work is in mice only.

#migraine #semaglutide #liraglutide #preclinical
Research

Huazhong University Team's Peptide Hydrogel With Stem Cell Exosomes Regrew Cartilage-Like Tissue in Rat Joint Defects by Week 8

The Exos@TRM gel builds on the self-assembling RADA16 peptide, adds a TGF-β1-binding peptide and a stem cell-recruiting motif, and releases bone marrow stem cell exosomes for about a week. In rats with surgically made cartilage-and-bone defects, it cut inflammatory M1 macrophages, drew in the animals' own TGF-β1 and stem cells, and formed tissue resembling natural cartilage. The authors note the acute surgical model does not mirror chronic human cartilage wear.

#peptide-hydrogel #cartilage #exosomes #preclinical
Research

Beijing Institute of Technology's PD-L1-Binding Peptide Fibers, Anchored in Microspheres, Stay in Tumors Longer and Pair With Ultrasound

The team picked EH, a β-sheet peptide that binds the immune checkpoint protein PD-L1, from an amphiphilic peptide library and grew it as aligned nanofibers inside the channels of PLGA microspheres loaded with immune-activating quantum dots. The design kept the peptide in tumors longer for sustained checkpoint blockade, and ultrasound-activated quantum dots set off immunogenic cell death. The authors report suppression of distant and metastatic tumors in animal tests.

#cancer-immunotherapy #immune-checkpoint #peptide-nanofibers #preclinical
Research

Oregon Health & Science University Virologists Turn HIV's Own Spacer Peptide 2 Against It, Yielding Defective Virus Particles

As HIV-1 matures, its freed spacer peptide 2 (SP2) binds the matrix protein and reorganizes it into a mature lattice. Eric Barklis and Ayna Alfadhli expressed a GFP-SP2 fusion in virus-producing cells and got misshapen particles carrying significantly less envelope protein. The cell-culture results suggest SP2-based molecules could be developed into antivirals.

#hiv #virus-assembly #peptide-inhibitors

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