How gym-obsessed Gen Z AND Boomers with agonising joint pain are turning to underground dealers to buy £80 ‘lab rat’ treatment they claim is more anti-ageing than Botox and sheds fat quicker than Ozempic

Gen-Z fitness fanatics are injecting themselves with experimental drugs sold illegally online in a craze fuelled by influencers, a Mail investigation has found.

Gym junkies obsessed with body image are taking vast quantities of ‘research peptides’ in a bid to build muscle and lose fat – or ‘get ripped’ – quickly.

But the chemicals have not been approved for human use and scientists have warned of potentially life-threatening side effects.

Yet an undercover Mail reporter was able to buy scores of the drugs from dealers advertising on Facebook and Telegram.

One dealer, who calls himself the ‘Peptide King’, said business was ‘kicking off big time’ ahead of an anticipated surge in demand in the New Year as thousands prepare for fresh fitness regimes.

The chemicals are often shipped from China, with wholesalers there telling the Mail that UK dealers were putting in orders worth up to £15,000.

Young men in particular are being targeted by influencers who tout the compounds as essential for ‘looksmaxxing’ – a trend in which people attempt to boost their physical attractiveness.

But the drugs are also being bought by older generations for joint pain and inflammation, as well as their supposed anti-ageing benefits.

Peptides are short chains of amino acids that naturally occur in the human body, but can also be produced synthetically.

More than 100 peptide medications have been approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, including Semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy.

But the ‘research peptides’ now circulating in fitness communities have only shown promise in animal studies and have never been tested on humans.

Sellers are taking advantage of a legal loophole, which allows the drugs to be sold for research purposes.

Most online ads carry this disclaimer. But when approached by an undercover reporter enquiring about muscle growth, dealers parroted unproven claims about how their drugs could be used to maximise gains.

Promoting unregulated drugs for human consumption in this way is illegal, although buying or possessing the substances is not an offence.

Adam Taylor, Professor of Anatomy at Lancaster University, warned that consumers were turning themselves into ‘lab rats’.

‘We’ve got to be clear that unregulated peptides carry serious health risks,’ he said.

He added that long-term injection of performance-enhancing drugs can lead to heart failure, as documented in recent medical case studies of young bodybuilders.

Dealers who sold peptides to our undercover reporter dismissed concerns over potential side effects by claiming the substances were ‘natural’.

But making them synthetically involves special chemicals called coupling agents, which can trigger serious allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis – a life-threatening condition.

Doctors at aesthetics clinics have reported a rise in patients presenting with reactions after injecting themselves with research chemicals they have bought online.

Among the most popular research peptides are BPC-157 and TB500, nicknamed the ‘Wolverine stack’ after the Marvel superhero famous for his rapid healing.

The Mail was able to buy a two-week supply of these peptides from dealer Aiden Brown, who had been advertising them on Facebook Marketplace.

Mr Brown also sold us tesamorelin, a prescription-only growth hormone, after our reporter asked what was best for muscle growth.

The total package cost £80.

When Mr Brown met our undercover reporter at a car park in Tarleton, Lancashire, to hand over the drugs, he invited us to join his Telegram group, BioRev, which he said was the ‘brand’ he was ‘trying to build’.

When asked where he got the drugs from, Mr Brown said: ‘It’s all from China.’

The Mail was also able to buy a month’s supply of the unregulated peptide MOTS-C from a dealer called Nick Parry, in Coalville, Leicestershire, who runs a website called ‘Peptide King’.

During our meeting, Mr Parry paid lip service to the legality of what he was doing.

‘It’s for research purposes only,’ he said, before adding: ‘What you do with it is up to you. I’ll tell you exactly what I do with it…’

Mr Parry then explained that MOTS-C would aid strength and recovery and help ‘your muscles grow bigger’.

He added: ‘For training, you’ll absolutely f****** beast on that.’

The rise of peptides has also been fuelled by MAGA influencers, including Joe Rogan, who has promoted their benefits after using BPC-157 to treat tendonitis in his elbow.

Rogan railed against US regulator the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for banning the drugs, claiming they were only doing so for their own profit.

US Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has said he would end the FDA’s ‘war on peptides’.

Their rhetoric appears to be influencing the UK market, with Mr Parry echoing Rogan’s arguments about the FDA to our undercover reporter.

‘The FDA…they’ve got it stitched up,’ he said. ‘They don’t want people buying peptides because these are better than any drugs they can sell.’

He added that he thought the peptide trade was ‘going to explode’ because of Robert Kennedy’s animus towards the FDA.

Professor Taylor was quick to dismiss their claims. ‘If these peptides were safe for human use, we would be using them to treat patients,’ he said.

A study published last year shows as many as 29 per cent of gym members now use performance-enhancing drugs, up from just 8 per cent in 2014.

Mr Parry told our undercover reporter that he had been ‘supplying to gyms’ for ‘quite a few years’. 

But when confronted by the Mail with its evidence, he dismissed this as ‘sales talk’ and said our reporter was his ‘first and only sale’, adding that he was unaware his actions were potentially illegal.

He reiterated that he only sold the peptides for ‘research purposes at the point of sale’.

Mr Brown declined to comment. 

Lynda Scammell, MHRA Head of Borderlines, said: ‘The MHRA determines whether a product is a medicine on a case-by-case basis. This includes consideration of a number of factors including the product’s effect on the body and the way it is used.

‘We disregard claims that products are for “research purposes” if it is clear that such claims are being used as an attempt to avoid medicines regulations. If there is evidence within the promotional material that the products are in fact unauthorised medicines intended for human use, we will take appropriate regulatory action.’