Fashion influencers and television writers have found a side-hustle selling to their peers. FIFO workers are injecting themselves before heading into mines. Teen boys have been lured in by the likes of “looksmaxxing” influencer Clavicular, while tech bros boast about shooting each other up for fun.
You don’t need to scroll for long to encounter an influencer touting the benefits of peptides, explaining how to reconstitute them and demonstrating how to inject them.
Australian influencer Eden Kannourakis has multiple TikTok videos of herself promoting the peptide, GHK-Cu. In one, Kannourakis, who was approached for comment, injects herself to a Missy Elliott beat, with a link in her bio to purchase it through an online store that labels the peptides as “for cosmetic use only”.
She’s not the only one.
While some influencers are starting to share their doubts about the use of peptides, the space is largely full of people touting extraordinary health claims with reckless abandon. Experts are unanimous in their warning of how dangerous this is.
“It’s literally like opening Pandora’s box,” says Dr Ian Musgraves, molecular pharmacologist and toxicologist at the University of Adelaide.
What are peptides?
Peptides are short chains of amino acids, linked by peptide bonds. Some peptides act as messengers between cells, others help control processes such as metabolism, growth, and immune responses. Because they can be designed and adjusted, peptides have become important in medicine, and scientists have been creating peptides with specific properties.
Their appeal is undeniable – some promise to give you glowing skin (GHK-Cu) or make you feel (and look) 10 years younger (Epitalon).
Others promise to help get you jacked (BPC-157), give you a tan and improve sexual performance (Melanotan II), make you focus at work (Dihexia) or, of course, some can facilitate speedy weight loss (Retatrutide).
Injectible peptides have gone from the realm of science to mainstream knowledge thanks to the boom of weight loss drugs – the “P” in GLP-1 stands for peptide – but have long been popular in bodybuilding communities, where people have been injecting peptides to stimulate muscle growth and recovery.
The three peptides influencers have been talking about – and injecting – most are Retatrutide, GHK-Cu and BPC-157, and cost between $85 to $500.
Are peptides legal in Australia?
Injectable peptides fall into in three broad categories: peptides approved by the TGA; those that are unapproved by the TGA but listed as prescription-only medicine (Schedule 4) or controlled drugs (Schedule 8) in the Poisons Standard; and those that are not approved by the TGA, and not listed in the Poisons Standard.
For example, glucagon‑like peptide‑1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists such as Semaglutide (commonly known as Ozempic) are TGA-approved. GLP-1s are also among the most extensively studied class of peptides, with numerous clinical trials that have explored their efficacy and safety in humans.
However, when you reach the numerous other peptides being pushed by influencers, things get murkier – most are not approved by the TGA.
BPC-157 (or the “Wolverine peptide”), for example, is classified as a prescription-only medicine in the Poisons Standard because of “the high risks of misuse and the limited evidence of safety,” says a spokesperson from the TGA. This means it is not approved by the TGA, but it can be prescribed.
Other peptides, like Retatrutide and GHK-Cu, are not approved or listed, making them illegal to supply, manufacture or import for human therapeutic use.
This distinction can seem confusing but it’s important.
By placing unapproved drugs on the Poisons Standard, the TGA and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA, who oversee doctors) can regulate their use. According to AHPRA, there were at least three doctors in the past six years who were taken to the tribunal and suspended for inappropriately prescribing peptides.
There were over 13,700 online ads removed by the TGA in 2024-2025, though it’s unclear how many were for peptides specifically. Influencers and online stores spruiking peptides can do so without getting caught by regulators because they claim the peptides are “for research purposes only”, which leaves people with limited means of recourse if things go wrong.
Experts are unanimous in their warnings of just how many things can go wrong if you source and inject peptides yourself.
Dangers of peptides
Sitting in her white-walled room, “training and nutrition coach” Nicole Erin tells the camera: “OK, let me tell you the story of how reta changed my life.”
In another video, Erin appears with a perfect face of makeup, and chrome-pink nails. The influencer, who was approached for comment, and who doesn’t list any expertise in medicine or biology, then pulls out two small vials and proceeds to carefully measure out and reconstitute her “Glow” – a peptide stack of TB500, BPC-157 and GHK-Cu.
A link in her bio takes you to an online store where you can purchase peptides with a discount code. The products are listed as “for laboratory use only”.
Injecting these peptides might change your life, but it’s not guaranteed to be in the way these influencers say.
Due to peptides’ cellular-promoting properties, there’s always a concern that it can lead to cancer, says endocrinologist Dr Rahul Barmanray from the University of Melbourne.
“If we’re stimulating cells to grow faster or better, then our concern is always that it can escape the body’s control, and that’s the definition of cancer,” he explains. “These individuals may be subjecting themselves to unknown risks.”
Due to the limited research, it’s impossible to know exactly what the side effects might be. Musgraves cites the popular “fat blaster drug” 2,4-Dinitrophenol (DNP) as a “cautionary tale”.
“It will actually cause you to lose weight, but it’s also incredibly toxic, and you can die from lethal hypothermia from taking it,” he says.
Not tested in humans
The key danger posed by the flourishing peptide grey market is that most of these peptides haven’t been rigorously tested, with no evidence to support their alleged benefits in humans.
Take BPC-157, for instance. “There’s some evidence in animal studies that it may increase tissue repair and there was a very small, non-randomised study in humans which suggested there might have been something, but in the clinical trials that have been run, none of them are completed, they’ve all stopped and not been reported,” says Musgraves.
“So we don’t know if it really works, we don’t know what the side effects are, there’s not enough information to say whether or not it is a health hazard. Yet people will happily inject themselves with this, and we have no way of monitoring what’s happening to these people.”
The studies that have been done on various peptides have largely been conducted in test tubes or on animals, and while their findings have been impressive, you can’t conclude they’ll react the same way in humans.
“They’re not regulated, and they haven’t got the evidence,” says pharmacist Dr Betty Chaar from the University of Sydney School of Pharmacy.
Dr Dominik Schaffner, who practices longevity and regenerative medicine, says that the early research is promising but preliminary.
“We’re in the infancy, yet the potential is already clearly visible on the horizon. So a lot more research is required,” says Schaffner, who prescribes approved peptides at his regenerative medicine clinic, Biogenix. “This is why it’s very important you should never consider peptides as a standalone golden bullet treatment.”
Lack of quality control
There’s an acute risk to sourcing peptides yourself due to their design. Most of the online manufacturers and stores being promoted by influencers boast that their peptides have been purity tested, but experts warn that’s not what people should be worried about.
Peptides’ linear structure means that if amino acids fold up, or if there are kinks in the chain, it “changes the entire dynamic of the molecule”, explains Schaffner. “It might actually either disable the peptide or the peptide causes something entirely different to happen because it’s not the same substance anymore.”
Purity tests, he continues, don’t capture these nuances. It might tell you that 99 per cent of a particular substance is in the powder you purchase, but “that doesn’t mean that it’s functioning, it doesn’t mean that it’s not contaminated, it doesn’t mean there’s no heavy metals, doesn’t mean there’s no microbial issues with it, that doesn’t mean it’s sterile”.
“Best-case scenario, these patients who buy these medications online, they’re injecting water,” says Schaffner. “Worst-case scenario, they’re injecting heavy metals and contaminants.”
It’s imperative to focus on harm reduction, says Barmanray. “If someone is taking medication that they know is not regulated and approved, then they’re less likely to seek medical attention when something does go wrong.”
While it’s fair to want to take control of your health, Chaar stresses it needs to be done in collaboration with professionals. “People have been egged on to believe that this is harmless, that this is nothing but peptides, proteins, nothing much, don’t worry, it won’t do anything to your kidneys,” she says. “How can they guarantee that?”
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