Disclaimer that these are my own hot takes as someone with a background in biomed: There’s a happy place between the preexisting FDA status quo before Trump II, and the peptide-bro MAHA stance. Both extremes are equally shitty.
To put my cards on the table, I was legally prescribed BCP-157 in 2023 by my doctor for GERD, and was cured outright. (This was my regular PCP, not some specialty concierge service.) GERD is typically considered an incurable chronic condition. My doctor knew my background and my chart, made sure I understood the risks thoroughly, and didn’t pressure me in the slightest.
The reason there’s not already good human research into these substances is not due to lack of clinical promise; quite the opposite. (I genuinely believe BCP is the most promising revolutionary treatment on the scene right now.)
The problem is that pharma companies can’t easily patent and profit off these substances, so they’re not willing to put up the hundreds of millions/billions necessary for proper clinical trials if they can’t monopolize it for 20 years to recoup the costs. In the general case, these peptides are naturally occurring amino acid chains produced endogenously, or close analogs — and naturally occurring peptide chains from the human body cannot be treated as novel intellectual property. It’s theoretically possible to patent a treatment in a narrow case, but competitors can easily skirt around that in practice.
The system is fundamentally broken right now from all sides, and we need to reform pharmaceutical regulation + research wholesale if we actually care about making real improvements in people’s lives. We shouldn’t be leaving promising treatments on the table simply because shareholders can’t monopolize them for billions in profit, and we shouldn’t let booster muppets be driplining patients with random research chemicals either.
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