The Underground Peptide Market Is Getting Ready to Go Mainstream

起底十亿级多肽热:是神药还是毒药?

Big Take

2026-07-03

24 分钟
PDF

单集简介 ...

In just a few years, peptides have grown from fringe drugs popular with fitness buffs and ‘looksmaxxers’ to a billion-dollar black market. Now, with the prospect of regulation on the horizon, healthcare players and investors are racing to cash in. On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg reporters Amanda Mull and Madison Muller join host Sarah Holder to break down the peptide boom, the safety concerns surrounding it and how a friendly Trump administration could bring it into the mainstream. Read more: Peptides Fuel a Multibillion-Dollar Startup Race Hosted by Sarah Holder; Produced by Laura Newcombe, Victor Swezey; Reported by Amanda Mull, Madison Muller; Edited by Julia Weaver, Aaron Edwards. Fact-checking by Julia Press; Engineering by Alex Sugiura. Senior Producer: Naomi Shavin; Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
更多

单集文稿 ...

  • Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, Radio, News.

  • Essentially, if you have a health concern or problem, whether that's a physical problem

  • or a cosmetic or aesthetic one, there is probably a peptide for that.

  • That's Madison Muller, who covers the pharmaceutical industry for Bloomberg.

  • Recently, she's been hearing a lot about a specific kind of drug: peptides.

  • I've been hearing a lot about them, too. They seem to be everywhere.

  • Now to the injectable peptides craze sweeping social media.

  • If you're in your 30s and you're not incorporating peptides into your skincare routine, why not?

  • At the most basic level, peptides are chains of amino acids that bind to receptors

  • in the body to turn processes on and off.

  • Peptides are used in lots of different drugs and they promise all kinds of transformative benefits.

  • They will make you theoretically tan, beautiful, snatched, pain-free, well-rested.

  • That's Amanda Mull, a senior reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek.

  • She says some of the most popular peptide-based drugs are ones you probably recognize,

  • like GLP-1s for weight loss and insulin.

  • Some of the substances that we're talking about are like extremely well-researched,

  • extremely widely used, safe, effective,

  • and they come from pharmaceutical companies that have large, well-inspected facilities

  • for producing peptide drugs in large quantities.

  • But there are a lot of other peptide-based injectables that are largely unregulated.