Peptides reach buyers by one of two routes, and the difference between them is not price or convenience but whether a licensed clinician and a licensed pharmacy stand behind the vial. The first route is a prescription, usually through a telehealth service, filled by a pharmacy your state licenses. The second is a website that sells vials labeled “for research use” or “not for human consumption” to anyone who pays.
This site prices only the first route. The price boards show what a month costs from sellers that publish a figure, and the table below shows which compounds that route can fill at all.
| Route | Compounds |
|---|---|
| Prescription, filled by a licensed pharmacy | Semaglutide, Tirzepatide, Liraglutide, Orforglipron, Sermorelin, NAD+, Glutathione, GHK-Cu, PT-141 (bremelanotide) |
| Prescription, brand-name product only (no compounded version) | Tesamorelin (Egrifta) |
| On no compounding list | MOTS-c, BPC-157 |
| In FDA's 503A Category 2 for safety risks | Kisspeptin |
The licensed route, step by step
Federal law lets a pharmacy compound a drug for an identified individual patient on a valid prescription[3]. That is the gate: a clinician licensed in your state reviews an intake, writes the prescription, and sends it to a pharmacy that compounds and ships it.
Each step has a cost attached. The intake may carry a consult fee, the prescription may require a membership, and the pharmacy’s price may or may not be the figure on the seller’s page. The peptide therapy cost guide sets out those fees, and the seller reviews record who charges which.
FDA’s own advice for buying compounded drugs online is to research the pharmacy or telehealth first[2]. It notes that a buyer may not know which compounder made the drug, or whether it was licensed and regulated[2]. So the question worth asking a seller before paying is which pharmacy fills the prescription, and whether it holds a license in your state.
State boards of pharmacy oversee most compounding pharmacies day to day, while facilities registered as outsourcing facilities are overseen by FDA[2]. The two tiers, and what each is allowed to make, are explained in 503A vs 503B.
The “research use only” route
Research-labeled websites sell peptides without a prescription, sometimes with a certificate of analysis attached and a disclaimer that the product is not for people. FDA’s position on that label is direct: it has warned companies that sold GLP-1 drugs falsely labeled “for research purposes” or “not for human consumption”[1]. Those products were sold directly to consumers for human use, with dosing instructions[1].
FDA urges consumers not to buy these products, describing them as of unknown quality[1]. The label does not change what the product is; it only removes the clinician and the pharmacy from the sale.
Many peptides sold this way have thin human data. A 2026 clinical review describes an illicit market in unapproved peptides such as BPC-157 and TB-500, which lack established human safety profiles[5]. It lists contamination, manufacturing impurities and inaccurate dosing among the risks[5].
A certificate of analysis does not close that gap, because a seller writes or commissions it. What one proves, and what it cannot, is covered in the peptide COA guide.
What changes when you pay
The research route may look cheaper per vial, and the comparison is not like for like. The licensed price includes a clinician’s review, a pharmacy’s accountability and a label you can trace. The research price includes none of those, and a health savings account cannot pay for it, as the HSA and FSA guide explains.
Before paying any seller, ask three things: who prescribes, which pharmacy fills the order, and which states it ships to. A seller that cannot answer all three is not on the licensed route.