March 31 (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is moving toward allowing compounding pharmacies to produce more than a dozen injectable peptides that were banned because of potentially significant safety risks, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing a senior administration official.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The FDA in 2023 removed 14 peptides from a list of products that it allows compounding pharmacies to produce. The compounded peptides were commonly used in wellness, integrative medicine and sports medicine.
The agency had said the move was based on significant safety risks including risks related to immunogenicity, toxicity and impurity of the peptides.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has publicly backed the use of peptides, saying on a recent podcast that he is a “big fan of peptides” and that he has used it himself with “really good effect.”
Peptides are short chains of amino acids, or fragments of larger proteins.
Peptides occur naturally in the body. Insulin, a 51‑amino‑acid peptide hormone that regulates blood sugar, was the first peptide to be synthesized outside the body and developed as a medicine.
(Reporting by Sneha S K; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
