Some peptides are legal to get with a prescription, and others have no lawful route to a patient at all. The word peptide covers any short chain of amino acids, so it takes in FDA-approved weight-loss drugs, compounds a pharmacy may mix for you, and substances FDA has declined to let pharmacies use. What decides which group a peptide falls into is its status under federal drug law.
This page sorts the peptides this site tracks into those groups, explains the rule behind each one, and shows what a month costs where a lawful market exists. Every status in the table below comes from the site's compound register, and each entry there cites the FDA or Federal Register document it rests on.
The rule that applies to all of them: a prescription
Federal law says a drug that is not safe to use without a licensed practitioner's supervision, or that is limited to such use by its approval, may be dispensed only on a prescription [1]. Dispensing one without a prescription makes the drug misbranded under the same section [1]. Every peptide on this site that can be lawfully sold to a patient is sold this way, through a clinician and a pharmacy.
Group one: approved peptide drugs
These have been through FDA review, have a label, and can be prescribed like any other medicine. Zepbound, a tirzepatide injection, was approved under NDA 217806 as an adjunct for chronic weight management [4]. Vyleesi, the brand of bremelanotide that sellers call PT-141, was approved under NDA 210557 for premenopausal women with acquired, generalized hypoactive sexual desire disorder [5].
Approval covers the approved product for its approved use. Prescribing it for anything else is off-label, which is a clinician's decision and not an FDA endorsement. For weight loss specifically, the choices and their costs are compared in peptides for weight loss. A month of semaglutide typically runs $189 across the 386 sellers that publish a monthly price.
Group two: peptides a pharmacy may compound
Compounding is a pharmacist mixing a drug for a named patient from raw ingredients. Section 503A of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act exempts that work from the approval requirements if the pharmacy meets its conditions [2]. One condition is about the ingredient. It must meet a USP monograph where one exists, or be a component of an FDA-approved drug, or appear on FDA's 503A Bulks List [2].
Sermorelin qualifies through the second door. It is the active ingredient of GEREF, which FDA approved in 1990 and 1997, and in 2013 FDA determined that GEREF was not withdrawn from sale for reasons of safety or effectiveness [3]. GEREF's approved use was idiopathic growth hormone deficiency in children with growth failure [3], so adult use of compounded sermorelin is off-label.
NAD+ and glutathione reach patients through FDA's interim policy instead. Both sit in Category 1 of FDA's list of nominated substances, meaning they are under evaluation [6]. GHK-Cu is in Category 1 only “except for injectable routes of administration,” after one nominator withdrew the injectable nomination in 2026 [6]. A GHK-Cu cream and a GHK-Cu injection therefore do not share a status.
| Peptide | Status on this site | Monthly market |
|---|---|---|
| Semaglutide | FDA-approved drug | $189 typical, 386 sellers |
| Tirzepatide | FDA-approved drug | $249 typical, 370 sellers |
| Liraglutide | FDA-approved drug | $295 typical, 4 sellers |
| Orforglipron | FDA-approved drug | $233 typical, 7 sellers |
| Sermorelin | May be compounded | $185 typical, 137 sellers |
| NAD+ | May be compounded | $191.25 typical, 161 sellers |
| Glutathione | May be compounded | $149 typical, 86 sellers |
| GHK-Cu | May be compounded (topical, nasal, oral, sublingual only) | $142 typical, 28 sellers |
| PT-141 (bremelanotide) | FDA-approved drug | $199 typical, 28 sellers |
| Tesamorelin | FDA-approved as a brand only; not compoundable | No price shown |
| MOTS-c | On no compounding list | No price shown |
| BPC-157 | On no compounding list | No price shown |
| Kisspeptin | In FDA's 503A Category 2 for safety risks | No price shown |
Group three: peptides with no lawful pharmacy route
A peptide that is not approved, has no monograph, and is on no list cannot be compounded under 503A. BPC-157 is the best known. FDA's safety page lists it among substances that were in Category 2, for significant safety risks, until the nominations were withdrawn [7]. The full reasoning is in why you can't get a BPC-157 prescription filled.
FDA put BPC-157 and MOTS-c before its Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee on July 23, 2026, evaluating BPC-157 for ulcerative colitis and MOTS-c for obesity and osteoporosis [2]. FDA's briefing documents recommended against listing either one [11] [12]. The committee voted to recommend listing both, along with four other peptides [9], in a vote STAT described as narrow [10]. BPC-157 passed 8 to 6 with one abstention, and MOTS-c 7 to 5 with two abstentions [13].
The vote is not binding. The HHS Secretary must still formally approve each addition, and pharmacies may not compound them until final rulemaking is in place [9]. Until then neither has a pharmacy route.
How to check a peptide before you pay
Put the peptide in one of the three groups first. If it is approved, the question is price and prescriber. If it is compoundable, ask which licensed pharmacy fills it and confirm the form matches the status, as with GHK-Cu. If it is on no list, no legitimate clinic can fill it, whatever its website says.
The steps of a lawful visit, from intake to the pharmacy, are in how online peptide therapy works, and the price boards show what each lawful market charges. The question to put to any seller is the same one the law asks: which pharmacy dispenses this, and under what authority?