During a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the fiscal year 2027 budget, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was asked directly about peptides by Rep. David Kustoff of Tennessee.
Kustoff opened the line of questioning by laying out the recent regulatory history and the growing attention around the topic.
“A lot of attention with peptides. We know that about three years ago the FDA removed 19 peptides from the list that compounding pharmacies would routinely make, and that limited access. Can I get your general opinion on peptides and your agency, your department’s plans, if there are any, for mainstreaming peptides?” he asked.
Kennedy responded by announcing a policy reversal he said had taken place just a day earlier.
“Well, we returned to 12 of those peptides yesterday,” he said. “Categories that formulators will be able to formulate them. Peptides are like supplements. FDA has authority to require three licensing safety studies, pre-marketing safety studies. And each dr*g that claims a med ication and is mass-marketed. Supplements are not regulated in that way by FDA. Peptides are not supposed to be regulated.”
He then directly criticized the prior administration’s decision to restrict the compounds.
“It’s been upheld again and again by the courts,” he said. “The Biden administration improperly moved them to category three without any evidence of safety. The only justification they have is there is a safety concern, and there was no science that indicated a safety concern. It was improper. We have remediated that by moving them back.”
Kennedy speaks about peptides often, and recently he offered his personal perspective during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience. There, he made clear that his support is not purely regulatory but rooted in his own experience using these.
“I’m a big fan of peptides. I’ve used them myself and used them with really good effect on a couple of injuries,” he said.
In that same conversation, Kennedy argued that restricting peptides had unintended consequences, particularly the growth of an unregulated marketplace. When legal access was curtailed, he said, “a black market came out and the black market is run by companies that say that they’re making the peptides for animal use or for research purposes.”
He warned that this shift created new risks for consumers, noting that while regulated compounding pharmacies relied on inspected supply chains, “with the gray market. You have no idea.”
