Exclusive | Inside the peptide gray market where people are DIY-ing GLP-1s and Botox

The pandemic changed how Americans think about health — and who they trust to manage it. In the wreckage of lockdowns, millions turned away from doctors and toward influencers.

Now, a growing number of wellness creators and everyday people are taking their health — and appearance — into their own hands. Literally.

Across TikTok, Telegram and WhatsApp, a new underground industry has emerged where people are buying raw compounds for Ozempic, Botox, filler and skin-tightening treatments directly from Chinese suppliers — and injecting them at home.

They’re part of what insiders call the gray market peptide world: a loosely organized, mostly female community of biohackers, gym rats and beauty obsessives who’ve grown tired of paying $1,000 a month for name-brand treatments.

In this world, a $100 bag of Chinese peptides can do what a Beverly Hills injector charges $3,000 for — or so they believe.

They’re also largely unconcerned about the risks, which doctors warn can include dangerous side effects like muscle paralysis and sepsis.

“We just learned how to do it ourselves.”

For many, the appeal is simple economics. Insurance rarely covers Ozempic or other GLP-1 medications, telehealth providers charge hundreds of dollars per month and local medical spas can charge even more.

Chinese and South Korean suppliers on Telegram sell powdered versions of the same drugs for pennies on the dollar.

“You can just type everything into Chat GPT. You don’t really need a doctor. They barely talked to you on telehealth, anyways.”

Ashley

Ashley, a 36-year-old peptide user in California, knows how to self-inject but has switched to research chemical sites, told The Post. “I found out there’s something better than semaglutide, for one quarter of the price. I switched and haven’t looked back.”

She isn’t alone. On Telegram and Discord, there are now tens of thousands of members swapping sourcing links, dosage spreadsheets and before-and-after photos. Some groups have spreadsheets comparing 40 different Chinese suppliers by price, shipping time and claims of “purity.”

Most of the compounds arrive as white powder in unmarked vials — with labels reading “not for human consumption.” Buyers mix them with bacteriostatic water, draw doses into insulin syringes bought on Amazon and inject them subcutaneously, guided by TikTok tutorials or Reddit threads.

“You can just type everything into Chat GPT,” said Ashley. “You don’t really need a doctor. They barely talked to you on telehealth, anyways.”

The rise of the research chemical middlemen

The craze started with “research chemical” websites — US companies that sell powdered peptides with the legal disclaimer that they’re “for lab use only,” or “not for human consumption.” These sites occupy a murky legal zone that allows them to sell unregulated compounds without prescriptions or oversight.

From there, a cottage industry of American resellers sprang up.

One of them is Max, a Denver man who once weighed 420 pounds. After he lost 150 pounds, his doctor prescribed Ozempic. When insurance stopped covering it, he found out how to order generic semaglutide online through a research chemical site — and later launched his own site, Mile High Compounds, to sell it himself.

“I’m not nervous,” he said. “Peptides are the future of medicine. Eventually, there’s going to be one for everything.”

His company now fills about 80 orders a day, mostly through TikTok marketing and word-of-mouth. “Everyone’s tired of being told what they can and can’t take,” he said.

From Ozempic to at-home Botox and lipo

What started as a weight-loss hack has expanded into the aesthetic world. In peptide chats, members trade instructions on mixing GHK-Cu (a copper peptide said to tighten skin), TB-500 (for healing), Botox and fillers (which aren’t actually peptides), and injectable lipolytics – or “liquid lipo.”

Users purchase these through their typical peptide vendors or from South Korean websites in the US like Celmade.co. After watching a few tutorials online, they inject themselves.

“It’s like Temu for medicine.”

peptide gray market user

On TikTok, you can find videos of women with tens of thousands of followers discussing their “at-home face refresh.”

While TikTok makes an effort to ban creators who promote self-injections, these people keep making content. Some speak in code, saying things like “peppers” instead of peptides, or “ratatouille” instead of retatrutide, an Ozempic alternative that is not yet FDA approved, but already available on these research sites.

Some creators prompt their audience to join their Facebook groups, Discord servers or even apps where they do tutorials on peptide injections, at-home microneedling and Botox and filler self-injections.

The math: 90% cheaper, 1,000% riskier

The price difference is staggering. A month of Ozempic through a doctor can cost $1,000; telehealth companies like Ro or Hims sell compounded versions for $300 to $400. But through a gray-market peptide supplier, a user can get a year’s worth for about $100.

Chinese vendors often sell “kits” — 10 vials for the price of one — and claim to use “the same labs” that manufacture ingredients for Western pharma giants. For users priced out of the medical system, the temptation is irresistible.

“RFK Jr. takes peptides. He gets it. He’ll protect us.”

a reseller

“It’s like Temu for medicine,” one member joked in a peptide group chat.

But those savings come with steep risks. Certificates of Analysis are easily faked. Dosing can be confusing even for professionals — most instructions toggle between milligrams and micrograms. Improper storage or mixing can render peptides useless or dangerous.

“There’s anatomical risk — you may inject into the wrong tissue or near a vessel,” explained Dr. Adesola Oyewole of Lily Primary Care in Houston.

For a neurotoxin like Botox, not injecting in exactly the right place can cause ptosis, in which the eyelid droops over the eye — and stays that way for months. Worse, too much can lead to flaccid paralysis. That’s when muscles stop working — including the ones people use to breathe.

“Products bought online may be contaminated or improperly stored, leading to infection, abscesses or sepsis,” Oyewole added. “With lipolytics specifically, there’s also a risk of fat necrosis or permanent tissue damage.”

Dr. Sarah Gibson of Vitality Health Matrix in Pennsylvania stressed that the low price can be a red flag that you’re not getting exactly what it says on the bottle: “I’ve seen it cheap, cheap, cheap, and there’s no way that’s actual medication.”

And without doctors, training or oversight, most users rely on social media tutorials and peer advice for how to self-administer. Some YouTubers offer “mentorships” teaching injection techniques over video call. Others crowdsource advice in real time: “How many units for TB-500?” “Can I mix this with retatrutide?”

The politics of peptides

Despite growing scrutiny, many in the community don’t believe the government will stop them.

“RFK Jr. takes peptides,” one reseller confidently told The Post. “He gets it. He’ll protect us.”

It’s a surprisingly common belief — that elites and politicians secretly use the same compounds, so regulation will always stop short. That mindset fuels the community’s defiance. Members frame themselves as rebels fighting Big Pharma and insurance companies that, they argue, profit from keeping Americans sick and dependent.

That narrative has proven powerful. When TikTok began banning peptide content this summer and several research chemical sites received warning letters, influencers called it proof of a Big Pharma conspiracy to crush their movement.

“There will always be a way to get peptides,” one Telegram admin wrote to his 9,000 members. “Enough of us know about how powerful these are, and the suppliers want to make money. Try and stop us.”

Washington notices — too late

In July, Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC) and 81 members of Congress urged the FDA to act against “illegal, counterfeit anti-obesity medications entering the US.” They framed the issue as part of a broader anti-China campaign — but few in the peptide world believe the crackdown will stick.

“Good luck stopping it,” one influencer wrote in a private Discord group. “The government can’t even stop fentanyl.”

And she’s probably right. The compounds are cheap, the chemistry is simple and the demand is exploding. Novo Nordisk, maker of Ozempic, recently slashed out-of-pocket prices to $499 a month, still far higher than the $100 gray-market alternative.

Even if federal agents shut down every peptide website tomorrow, hundreds more would pop up overnight — hosted offshore, advertised on TikTok and shipped in padded envelopes from Shenzhen.

The new face of beauty

What’s emerging is something bigger than a health fad. It’s a cultural shift — a rebellion against medical gatekeeping and the high cost of beauty.

For now, it’s happening quietly: in bathrooms, kitchens and DMs between women trading supplier names like contraband. They know the risks. They just don’t care.