The long view
A short history of peptide medicine.
Your body runs on peptides. Around 7,000 of them circulating right now. Tens of thousands more have been catalogued. Fewer than a hundred are FDA-approved drugs. And in 2023, the FDA put nineteen wellness compounds on its Category 2 list, pulling them out of routine compounding (an interim enforcement policy, not a rule). That collapse, from limitless to a handful, is the whole story, and it's why we want you to see the context before you read a single profile.
We tag each tier. Estimate, catalog count, or hard fact. Because the honest answer to "how many peptides are there?" is a range, not a number.
- 1901Emil Fischer defines the peptide bond. The chemistry that makes all of this possible.
- 1922Insulin: the first human peptide therapy. Leonard Thompson, 14, is pulled back from the edge of a diabetic coma.
- 1954Vincent du Vigneaud synthesizes oxytocin and vasopressin. The first synthesized peptide hormones (Nobel, 1955).
- 1963Bruce Merrifield invents solid-phase peptide synthesis, making peptides manufacturable at scale (Nobel, 1984).
- 1989Goserelin. The first approved peptide cancer drug.
- 1991Exendin-4 is isolated from Gila monster venom. The seed of the entire GLP-1 era.
- 2005Exenatide: the first GLP-1 receptor agonist reaches market.
- 2017–2023The GLP-1 explosion. Semaglutide, then tirzepatide. Reshapes metabolic medicine and the culture around it.
- 2023The FDA puts 19 wellness peptides on its Category 2 list, pulling them out of routine compounding. Category 2 is an enforcement policy, not a rule.
- 2026The tide turns, on paper. In April, after the nominators withdraw their requests, 12 peptides come off Category 2. That is not a safety finding and not an approval. In July an advisory committee recommends six for the 503A list (BPC-157, TB-500, MOTS-c, KPV, Semax, Epitalon) and votes DSIP down. As of October 2026 the FDA has proposed no rule, so none of the six can be lawfully compounded yet.
Why the timeline matters
"First documented human use" is a required field on every profile we built. For approved peptides the record is clear. Insulin, 1922. For most wellness peptides it's blank: no controlled human trial has ever been completed. That blank is the single most honest thing we can show you, and we're not going to hide it.
See how the compounds grade →