Companies not testing their products pose threat to practitioners and patients

She is not the first to describe the peptide industry as “the wild west,” but an unnamed source with deep roots in the dietary supplement industry calls the lack of consistent lab testing a crisis for peptide practitioners and the patients they treat.

And one that might be familiar to supplement insiders who recall the “dry lab” events of decades past.

Let’s dive in.

The source, who asked that her name not be used due to legal risks for her supplements-focused company, says she sees too many companies “selling junk and making a ton of money,” phony COAs (certificates of analysis), questionable ingredients sourced from China, and dosages that can be wildly off the label promise. “It might have 50%; It might have 40%; It might have 10[%].”

That doesn’t mean no company is doing testing right. She is working with one for which she contracts tests for every lot. Still, she says, it is nearly impossible for anybody to sort out the responsible brands from the upstart companies selling products with little care to purity and dosing.

“I think 90% of what's out there is not tested,” the source says.

Elan Sudberg doesn’t know how accurate 90% might be, but he does know the problem is bigger than many realize. Sudberg’s Alkemist Labs is a high-profile testing company for the dietary supplement industry, determining ingredient identity and potency. Even in the supplement industry that doesn’t happen enough, Sudberg says, but the problem is almost undoubtedly more common in an illicit market. “There's not a lot of actual analytical testing to see whether you do or don't have the actual compound, and that's what scares me the most. We don't know what people are actually injecting into their veins.”

Both Sudberg and the unnamed source quoted above contend that the purity problem poses far more problems in peptides than it might in supplements. “Supplements e go through our gut and get digested,” Sudberg notes. “The body has a chance to deal with anything that's in there that shouldn't be. But with peptides, you're talking about injectables that go right into the body. I find it terrifying.”

Alkemist Labs has explored testing peptides, but has thus far not entered the space. No matter how widespread peptide use is, Sudberg is not sure how testing services would fit into an illicit market. “It's another industry like cannabis and like psychedelics that has run really fast, faster than regulations can keep up.”

Regulations could do a lot to help practitioners, producers, and patients navigate the space, the unnamed source says. Companies that can sell legally might also be willing to fund more studies on efficacy, something she knows well from decades in the contract research world. She is encouraged by the possibility of more clarity in the US that would encourage testing, but a global market will face similar challenges in a large number of countries. Without regulation, she says, the market remains illicit and, as such, the motivation to do proper testing barely exists for many companies. “It can be done right,” she says, “but people need to be held accountable.”