G2RS has seen an increase in card brand assessments for”peptide” merchants that sell semaglutide and/or tirzepatide.
As background, high-risk peptide merchants typically sell a few dozen products marketed for “research purposes only” or “not for human consumption.” Although these merchants claim that their products are solely intended for research, they—and their clientele—intend the products to be used as drugs. For this reason, G2RS currently flags these merchants as PVIO-Pharma.
The “peptides” offered by these merchants typically include prescription-only active pharmaceutical ingredients (e.g., clomiphene, tamoxifen, sildenafil), SARMS (e.g., MK-2866, LGD-4033), and unlicensed and investigational drugs that are popular with bodybuilders (e.g., BPC-157, CJC-1295, GHRP-6, ipamorelin, melanotan 2, selank, and TB-500). In contrast, legitimate research chemical companies typically sell thousands of research chemicals. Legitimate actors also restrict sales to business entities and universities—i.e., they do not sell to consumers.
Historically, high-risk peptide merchants offered products that primarily appealed to the bodybuilding community; however, these merchants are now actively promoting GLP-1 agonists, a class of prescription-only drugs that includes semaglutide (the active ingredient in Ozempic™, Wegovy™, and Rybelsus™) and tirzepatide (the active ingredient Mounjaro™ and Zepbound™). See the example below.
The FDA has issued several warning letters to peptide merchants who offer semaglutide and tizepatide. See, e.g., FDA Warning Letter to US Chem Labs (Feb. 7, 2024); FDA Warning Letter to www.gorillahealing.com (Oct. 2, 2023); and FDA Warning Letter to www.semaspace.com (Oct. 2, 2023). Violative peptide merchants have also been the subject of negative news, as well as card scheme assessments. G2RS advises all clients to review their portfolios for these high-risk merchants.