Peptide News Digest

HHS Peptide Policy Opens for Comment, Coroner Ties an Actor's Death to CJC-1295, Korea's Eppe Launches

HHS's peptide policy is open for comment to Nov. 13, a coroner links Richard Norton's death to CJC-1295, and Korea's cheaper GLP-1 Eppe launches.

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

Editor's Note

HHS's peptide compounding policy appeared in the Federal Register on Friday, with two weeks for public comment and a line saying HHS may revisit it if a safety signal or quality problem shows up. Australia and New Zealand show what such a signal can look like. A Victorian coroner found that actor Richard Norton died after injecting more than his prescribed dose of CJC-1295 and ipamorelin made by a licensed compounding pharmacy, and a New Zealand needle-exchange operator says peptide users now make up about two in five of its clients. CJC-1295 and ipamorelin are not among the six peptides in the U.S. policy, and one death does not measure the risk of any of them, but it is the kind of report the U.S. policy's adverse-event requirement is meant to surface. On the GLP-1 side, Hanmi began selling Korea's first homegrown obesity drug at about half the starting price of Mounjaro, and Vanda's tradipitant cut vomiting after a deliberately harsh first semaglutide dose. The lab papers this week run from thymosin beta-4 helping antibiotics against staph to a peptide that slowed cell aging in culture, all early-stage work.

Regulatory

HHS Peptide Compounding Policy Published in the Federal Register, With Public Comments Open for Two Weeks

HHS published its enforcement discretion policy for 503A compounding with six peptide bulk substances in the Federal Register on October 30, 2026, under docket HHS-OASH-2026-0496, with written comments accepted for two weeks, through November 13. The notice calls the policy a draft and interim, says it is not binding, and says HHS may revisit it in whole or in part if a safety signal or product quality issue arises; FDA rulemaking on the 503A bulks list may later propose adding some or all of the peptides.

#peptide-policy #compounding #503a #bpc-157 #rfk-jr
Regulatory

Victorian Coroner Links Actor Richard Norton's Death to CJC-1295 and Ipamorelin, Urges Australia's TGA to Review the Peptides

ABC News reported that Victorian coroner David Ryan found Richard Norton, 75, died at Melbourne's Alfred Hospital on March 30, 2025, from complications of injecting the unapproved peptides CJC-1295 and ipamorelin, which a licensed Queensland compounding pharmacy made for him. Norton had told a clinic nurse he was injecting double his prescribed dose and collapsed hours later after another injection. Ryan recommended the Therapeutic Goods Administration review the peptides' benefits and risks and consider further restrictions; the ABC called it believed to be Australia's first confirmed death from unapproved peptide use.

#cjc-1295 #ipamorelin #australia #tga #peptide-safety
Regulatory

New Zealand Needle-Exchange Operator Says About Two in Five of Its Clients Now Ask for Help With Peptides

RNZ reported that Dr Lesley McTurk, chief executive of a trust that runs needle exchanges across most of the upper and central North Island, said peptide users now make up about 40% of its clients, where people injecting psychoactive drugs once made up 85% to 90%. Health New Zealand has handed out 2,300 peptide injecting kits through the program since mid-September, and New Zealand Customs said it refers suspected unapproved peptides found at the border to the medicines regulator Medsafe.

#gray-market #peptide-safety #new-zealand #needle-exchange
Industry

Hanmi's Eppe, Korea's First Homegrown GLP-1 Obesity Drug, Reaches Patients at About Half Mounjaro's Starting Price

Prescriptions of Hanmi Pharmaceutical's once-weekly efpeglenatide, sold as Eppe, began October 29, 2026 at select Korean clinics and hospitals, after a limited first shipment on October 22, the Herald Business reported. The first four weeks cost 129,800 won, against about 270,000 won for Mounjaro's lowest dose and about 210,000 won for Wegovy, rising to 299,200 won a month at the 10 mg maintenance dose. In Hanmi's 448-patient Korean Phase 3 trial, patients lost an average of 9.75% of body weight over 40 weeks.

#efpeglenatide #hanmi #glp-1 #obesity
Clinical Trials

Vanda's Tradipitant Cut Vomiting to 43% From 58.5% After an Untitrated 1 mg Semaglutide Dose in Phase 3 Study 3601

In Vanda Pharmaceuticals' placebo-controlled Phase 3 Study 3601, people given a single 1 mg semaglutide dose without the usual dose ramp-up vomited less often on the NK-1 blocker tradipitant: 43.0% (61 of 142) versus 58.5% (96 of 164) on placebo, P = .006, HCPLive reported. The key secondary endpoint of vomiting plus moderate or worse nausea fell to 33.1% from 50.6%. Vanda plans to meet the FDA in 2027 before filing a supplemental application; the trial did not test tirzepatide or the usual gradual dosing.

#tradipitant #semaglutide #side-effects #vanda
Clinical Trials

Copenhagen Study in 15 Healthy Adults Finds a Glucagon Infusion Slows How Fast the Body Clears Insulin

Researchers at Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital gave 15 healthy adults a four-hour intravenous glucagon infusion on one day and a glucose infusion meant to match the resulting blood sugar on another, reporting in the Journal of the Endocrine Society. Insulin secretion, the primary endpoint, did not differ significantly between days (P = 0.12), but a post hoc analysis found insulin clearance was lower during glucagon at both high and normal blood sugar (P = 0.0003). The glucose matching was incomplete, and the result bears on drugs such as retatrutide that add glucagon-receptor activity.

#glucagon #insulin-clearance #triple-agonist
Research

Dalhousie Pathologists Report a Rare Amyloid Lump at the Injection Site in a 71-Year-Old Who Used Three GLP-1 Drugs

A 71-year-old woman who had used liraglutide, semaglutide, and tirzepatide developed a lump under the skin of her abdomen that biopsy showed was an amyloid deposit, Dalhousie University and Mayo Clinic authors reported in the American Journal of Dermatopathology. Mass spectrometry detected low levels of liraglutide in the deposit and immunohistochemistry stained it for glucagon, which shares much of its sequence with liraglutide. The authors found only three earlier reported cases of this localized amyloidosis and warn it can be mistaken for systemic amyloidosis.

#amyloidosis #liraglutide #semaglutide #tirzepatide #injection-site-reactions
Research

Wayne State Lab Finds Thymosin Beta-4 Kills Little Staph on Its Own but Boosts Several Antibiotics Against It

Wayne State University School of Medicine researchers tested recombinant human thymosin beta-4, the protein that TB-500 is derived from, against a laboratory Staphylococcus aureus strain and two clinical isolates, reporting in Microbiology Spectrum. Alone it had little direct antibacterial activity even at high concentrations, but it acted synergistically with several of the four antibiotics tested (moxifloxacin, ciprofloxacin, oxacillin, vancomycin), mainly against free-floating bacteria. It did little against established biofilms, and all of the work was in lab dishes.

#thymosin-beta-4 #antimicrobial-peptides #antibiotic-resistance #staphylococcus-aureus
Research

Tongji University Peptide pSirt1-4 Frees the Longevity Enzyme SIRT1 From USP25 and Slows Cell Senescence in Lab Tests

Shanghai researchers at Tongji University reported in Aging Cell that the enzyme USP25 binds SIRT1 and lowers its activity, and that mice lacking USP25 showed fewer age-related changes. They designed a cell-penetrating peptide, pSirt1-4, that blocks the USP25-SIRT1 interaction, raised SIRT1 activity, and reduced markers of cellular senescence. The abstract reports the peptide's effects on cellular senescence, not on lifespan or aging in animals.

#senescence #sirt1 #anti-aging #longevity
Research

Sun Yat-sen University's Self-Assembling Peptide CQ7 Forms Nanofibers That Linger in the Lungs and Ease Fibrosis in Mice

Sun Yat-sen University researchers designed CQ7, a therapeutic peptide joined to a self-assembly motif so it forms nanofibers inside and outside cells, and reported in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry that the fibers stayed in mouse lungs longer and improved delivery. Given by injection into the abdomen or by inhalation, CQ7 reduced fibrosis and inflammation in a mouse model of pulmonary fibrosis, and gene-expression work suggested it acts through mitochondrial function and oxidative stress. No human testing has been reported.

#pulmonary-fibrosis #self-assembling-peptides #peptide-nanofibers #drug-delivery

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