Across Australia, \u201clongevity\u201d and \u201cwellness\u201d clinics, most of them online, sell injections that promise to slow ageing, build muscle, heal injuries and help you sleep. <\/p>\n
This week\u2019s ABC 4 Corners<\/a> described a doctor prescribing a \u201cstack\u201d of them after a short questionnaire and a phone call. Many are peptides.<\/p>\n A peptide is a short chain of amino acids: the tiny building blocks of the proteins in our bodies. A few peptides, such as insulin<\/a>, are approved medicines.<\/p>\n But the peptides sold at online wellness clinics \u2013 with names such as BPC-157, CJC-1295 and TB-500<\/a> \u2013 aren\u2019t approved, nor are most other \u201canti-ageing\u201d injections. <\/p>\n None has been shown to have the claimed effects in humans, and the medicines regulator warns<\/a> they carry real risks.<\/p>\n Some people import<\/a> a supply for their own use. For some peptides, that is lawful with a valid prescription<\/a>. <\/p>\n Others are controlled imports<\/a> that also need an importation permit a patient cannot get. Without the right authority, or if the peptides are sold on, importing them is an offence<\/a>. <\/p>\n And it doesn\u2019t matter if the substances are labelled \u201cresearch chemicals, not for human use\u201d if, in substance, they are therapeutic goods<\/a>. Australian law does not recognise any \u201cresearch chemicals\u201d exemption<\/a>.<\/p>\n But others get these substances via online clinics that exploit a legal loophole: these injections are \u201cunapproved\u201d but that doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re \u201cbanned\u201d.<\/p>\n What the medicines regulator does<\/p>\n Before a medicine can be sold in Australia, it usually has to be listed on an official register<\/a>. To get there, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) \u2013 the government body that regulates medicines \u2013 must check it is safe, well made and works<\/a>.<\/p>\n The TGA regulates according to risk<\/a>, putting its limited resources where the danger is greatest. <\/p>\n But even a real, known risk may draw no regulatory action<\/a> because it\u2019s another regulator\u2019s job or because acting is resource-intensive, costly and may not achieve the aim of making patients safer.<\/p>\n Either way, the peptides mentioned above have never passed that check. In other words, they\u2019re \u201cunapproved<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n How the clinics get around the rules<\/p>\n Doctors have always been allowed to supply unapproved products in special cases, through the Special Access<\/a> Scheme<\/a> and other lawful access pathways<\/a>. <\/p>\n That way, a patient with a rare cancer, for example, or a child who cannot take an approved medicine, still has options.<\/p>\n But some Australian clinics exploit a different exception. When a pharmacist mixes up a medicine intended for one patient \u2013 called compounding<\/a> \u2013 that preparation doesn\u2019t need to be<\/a> on the register<\/a>. <\/p>\n The rule was written for cases like a pharmacist making a liquid version<\/a> of a tablet for someone who cannot swallow.<\/p>\n Making the same recipe in bulk and posting it interstate as injection pens is really manufacturing<\/a>, which needs a licence<\/a>. <\/p>\n But because each dose is labelled \u201cfor a particular person\u201d, it never faces the TGA\u2019s safety check<\/a>.<\/p>\n Two regulators, one gap<\/p>\n Australia splits the job of regulating supply of medicines across two regulators, plus consumer law<\/a>, which can act against misleading claims. <\/p>\n The TGA oversees therapeutic products. It:<\/p>\n But it doesn\u2019t regulate doctors or pharmacists. That falls to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency<\/a> (Ahpra), which is responsible for a practitioner\u2019s registration<\/a>. <\/p>\n Ahpra can attach<\/a> conditions to a practitioner\u2019s registration, suspend them, or take steps to de-register them<\/a>. But this usually only happens after someone complains<\/a>, one practitioner at a time.<\/p>\n Ahpra has recently tightened its rules on cosmetic<\/a> and online<\/a> prescribing by doctors, so a script can\u2019t be written after just completing a questionnaire. It has also tightened rules for compounding by pharmacists<\/a>.<\/p>\n But online clinics can slip through a regulatory gap. If the compounded product is notionally exempt, the TGA may not intervene, while the acts of prescribing and compounding fall to Ahpra, which works case by case and can therefore be slow.<\/p>\n Can these injections hurt you?<\/p>\n Yes. The TGA warns<\/a> you often cannot be sure what is in the vial, whether the dose is right, or whether it is sterile.<\/p>\n Even when pure, these drugs can harm. A single dose of CJC-1295 raises a growth factor, IGF-1<\/a>, up to three-fold for over a week. High IGF-1 levels are a probable cause<\/a> of breast cancer<\/a>.<\/p>\n Peptides and anti-ageing injections are also very costly. A few weeks\u2019 supply can cost more than A$1,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n When it goes wrong, who\u2019s accountable?<\/p>\n The clearest wins against these businesses have been over their advertising, rather than harm to a patient.<\/p>\n In 2019, the Federal Court fined one company, Peptide Clinics, A$10 million<\/a> for advertising prescription peptides to the public. It found no real doctor\u2013patient relationship<\/a> behind the online sales. With a real clinical relationship, the sales would have counted as clinical advice, which the advertising ban does not prohibit.<\/p>\n The company collapsed during the case<\/a>. <\/p>\n These clinics depend on advertising, and advertising prescription medicines to the public<\/a> is against the law<\/a>. So an advertising case can be brought against the whole business, not just one doctor.<\/p>\n Penalties run up to $1.65 million a breach for a person<\/a> or $16.5 million for a company<\/a>. But the TGA rarely goes that far. <\/p>\n It usually starts small<\/a>, warning and educating first, then escalating if that fails. <\/p>\n The TGA also says it cannot chase every breach<\/a>.<\/p>\n This week, the TGA put suppliers and promoters on notice<\/a>, admitting repeated warnings have not stopped the peptide trade.<\/p>\n Read more: So what needs to change?<\/p>\n We probably don\u2019t need new laws. Refinement of existing laws would do. The options include:<\/p>\n enforcing the ban on the advertising these businesses depend on<\/p>\n funding the TGA properly so it can pursue breaches<\/p>\n narrowing the compounding rule so it cannot work as a bulk manufacturing licence. <\/p>\n The government did this in 2024<\/a>, removing weight-loss drugs like Ozempic<\/a> (by then, sold to at least 20,000 Australians<\/a> by online clinics compounding copies at scale), along with gene therapies and medicinal cannabis<\/a>. It could do the same for these peptides.<\/p>\n The patients buying these injections are not reckless. They are trying to look after their health. But they may be relying on a promise the clinical evidence cannot support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Across Australia, \u201clongevity\u201d and \u201cwellness\u201d clinics, most of them online, sell injections that promise to slow ageing, build…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":["post-551893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Influencers are promoting dangerous peptides on social media \u2013 and regulators are struggling to keep up<\/a><\/p>\n