WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration will convene an advisory panel in July 2026 to consider easing compounding restrictions on more than a half dozen peptide injections. The review follows a push by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has pledged to loosen regulations on peptides.

The agency's Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee will meet on July 23 and 24, 2026, to review seven of 12 peptides, including BPC-157, TB-500 and KPV, to determine whether they should be moved from a restrictive category reserved for risky, customized drugs onto a list of substances that can be routinely compounded by pharmacies. A second meeting is scheduled for February 2027. The FDA notice cites using BPC-157 to treat ulcerative colitis as a possible medical use.

In 2023, under President Joe Biden, the FDA added 19 injectable peptides to its list of restricted substances, citing safety risks including cancer and liver, kidney and heart problems. The agency's pharmacy advisers at the time voted overwhelmingly that the peptides did not meet the criteria for drugs that can be safely compounded, and regulators said most had not been extensively tested in humans. Pharmacies that violate the restrictions risk fines, legal action or loss of their state licenses.

Kennedy, who has discussed using peptides for his own injuries, previously vowed to end the FDA's "war on peptides." In a podcast interview with Joe Rogan in February, he said, "I'm a big fan of peptides. I've used them myself and with really good effect on a couple of injuries. I'm very anxious to move — probably not all of those peptides, some of them are in litigation — but about 14 of them back to making them more accessible. I think within a couple of weeks we will have announced some kind of new action." Kennedy has also said the FDA under Biden had "illegally moved" the drugs onto the list of substances barred for compounding. In a social media post, he said that with the scheduled meetings, "we took long-overdue action to restore science, accountability, and the rule of law."

Last year, several members of Congress, including Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, sent letters to Kennedy asking him to lift limits on peptide production. The compounding industry has argued that FDA restrictions have given rise to an illicit market of imported peptides from China and other countries not subject to U.S. drug standards. Overseas suppliers on platforms like TikTok offer dozens of peptide varieties for as little as $5 a vial labeled "for research use only." Lawyers say the labeling is an attempt to skirt FDA regulations because the agency does not oversee chemicals that are not intended for human use.

Robert Steinbrook, director of the Health Research Group at Public Citizen, said, "There is no credible reason to believe that peptides that were deemed unproven or unsafe in 2023 are miraculously safe and effective in 2026. These peptides should go through the standard FDA approval process for new drugs, not a more lenient alternate pathway that defeats the reason the agency exists in the first place. If there were convincing safety and effectiveness data, the findings would already be widely known."