Visit statistics

May our host count your visit? It then sets a cookie and notes the pages you read, your device and your country. We see only totals. The site works the same either way. What is recorded

Peptides Explained

History: how peptide medicines and their rules came about

In short

Reading the whole page takes about 2 minutes.

  • Peptide medicines are a hundred years old. Insulin was first used in 1922.
  • Rules for medicines changed after people were harmed. A big change came after a pill called thalidomide.
  • These pages explain the rules and their history. They do not tell you what to use.
Last reviewed
Two young men in suits sit side by side in an office, in front of a bookcase. A black-and-white photo.
Best (left) and Banting, about 1924. Their team first gave insulin to people with diabetes in 1922. Photo: Unknown author (Wikimedia Commons) Public domain Image details

Why read about history?

It explains why some peptides are checked medicines and others are not.
Which page answers which question.
Your questionRead
What happened, and when?Timeline
Why must a medicine be tested before it is sold?How we got here
Why does one lab dominate the BPC-157 research?The Croatian lab

In 1922 doctors in Toronto first lowered blood sugar in people with diabetes with insulin.1 Insulin is a peptide. Many peptide medicines followed, such as semaglutide.2,3

The rules changed too. In the late 1950s a sleeping pill called thalidomide harmed more than 10,000 babies.4 After that, the US and Europe began to require proof that a medicine works, and a licence before sale.5,6

So an authorised medicine today has passed checks on its quality, its effect and its safety.7 A product sold without a licence has not been checked in this way.8 That difference runs through this whole site.

This section describes the history. It gives no advice on what to use. If you already have a product, read product risk and the warning signs.

The history pages

Where should I start?

Start with the timeline. Then read why the rules look the way they do.
  • Timeline

    From the first insulin in 1922 to the FDA advisory vote of July 2026: discoveries, laws, approvals, doping rules and safety alerts, each dated and sourced.

  • How we got here

    Why medicines need proof of quality, effect and safety before sale: thalidomide, the 1962 US law, Europe's 1965 directive, what the rules buy and what they cost.

  • The Croatian lab

    Most BPC-157 research comes from one group in Zagreb. How we counted, why independent replication matters, and what would change the picture.

Sources

Every claim on this page links to one of these sources. Scholarly sources link to their DOI; regulatory sources to the regulator's own page.

  1. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA History Office) (2022). 100 Years of Insulin. Regulator fda.gov — accessed 22 October 2026 ↩
  2. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2026). Drugs@FDA: NDA 209637 (Ozempic, semaglutide injection). Regulator accessdata.fda.gov — accessed 20 October 2026 ↩
  3. European Medicines Agency (2026). Ozempic (semaglutide): EPAR — overview and product information. Official product information ema.europa.eu — accessed 20 October 2026 ↩
  4. Vargesson N (2015). Thalidomide-induced teratogenesis: history and mechanisms. Birth Defects Research. Part C, Embryo Today: Reviews 105:140-156. Review doi:10.1002/bdrc.21096 ↩
  5. United States Congress (1962). Public Law 87-781 (Drug Amendments of 1962), 76 Stat. 780, approved 10 October 1962. United States Statutes at Large, volume 76. Law govinfo.gov — accessed 22 October 2026 ↩
  6. Council of the European Economic Community (1965). Council Directive 65/65/EEC of 26 January 1965 on the approximation of provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action relating to proprietary medicinal products. Official Journal of the European Communities, 022, 9 February 1965, pp. 369-373. Law eur-lex.europa.eu — accessed 22 October 2026 ↩
  7. European Parliament and Council of the European Union (2001). Directive 2001/83/EC of 6 November 2001 on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use (text as adopted). Official Journal of the European Communities, L 311, 28 November 2001, pp. 67-128. Law eur-lex.europa.eu — accessed 22 October 2026 ↩
  8. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (2026). MHRA seizes illegal medicines worth almost £45m in 2025 – disrupting major criminal networks. GOV.UK. Regulator gov.uk — accessed 22 October 2026 ↩