Educational BPC-157 guide: what it is, what the pharmacokinetic studies measured, the evidence and regulatory status, half-life and side effects. Research/educational use only, not medical advice.
Standard Access: This compound's three paid filesAll-Access Lifetime: all 55 guides + every printableEducational content only
Featured First Guide: Available Now
Educational use only — not medical advice. This guide summarizes information reported in published research and community practice for educational purposes. It is not medical advice and not a recommendation to use any compound. Any doses, schedules, or combinations shown are examples of what has been reported, not instructions for you. Many peptides described here are research compounds that are not FDA-approved for the uses discussed and may be investigational or restricted. Effects, risks, and legal status vary; individual needs and results vary. Consult a qualified, licensed healthcare professional before making any decision. Do not use this content to diagnose, treat, or dose yourself.
BPC-157 at a glance
What it is
BPC-157 ("Body Protection Compound-157") — a synthetic 15-amino-acid peptide, H-GEPPPGKPADDAGLV-OH, corresponding to a partial sequence attributed to human gastric juice.
Identity
PubChem CID 9941957 · C62H98N16O22 · MW 1419.5 · CAS 137525-51-0. Also indexed as Bepecin, which is the name that matters below.
Researched for
Tendon, ligament, muscle and gut-lining repair — overwhelmingly in rodent models.
Human record
One registered clinical trial (NCT02637284, Phase 1, n=42) — and it tested an ORAL tablet, not injection. Status has stood at 'unknown' with no posted results.
Plasma half-life
Under 30 minutes — measured in rats and beagle dogs (PMID 36588717), not in humans.
Bioavailability
Intramuscular ~14–19% in rats, ~45–51% in dogs (same study). No human figure exists.
Regulatory status
Not FDA-approved; WADA-prohibited since January 2022; research/educational use only.
Educational reference. This page does not publish dose ranges or reconstitution arithmetic.
What it is / mechanism
BPC-157 is a stable synthetic pentadecapeptide derived from a partial sequence of body-protection compound identified in human gastric juice. The mechanisms most often cited are promotion of angiogenesis through VEGFR2 signalling, modulation of growth-factor and nitric-oxide pathways, and interaction with the gut-brain axis. It is worth being precise about what kind of claim that is: these are mechanisms proposed and tested in rodent and in-vitro models, and they are the explanation researchers offer for effects observed in those models. They are not conclusions drawn from human physiology. A mechanism can be well characterised in a rat and still not describe what happens in a person, and nothing in the published record closes that gap for this compound.
Researched effects
The preclinical literature is genuinely large, and it is genuinely one-sided in species. Reported findings include accelerated healing of tendon-to-bone and muscle injuries in animal models, protective effects on the gastrointestinal tract in ulcer and inflammatory-injury models, and cytoprotective and angiogenic effects across several tissue types. Recent reviews indexed on PubMed — a 2025 systematic review in HSS Journal, a 2025 narrative review in Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine, and a 2026 formulation review in Pharmaceutics — all describe an investigational compound whose human evidence base has not yet been built, which is the same reading this page takes. Community reports frequently describe use around soft-tissue recovery. Those are anecdotes; they are not outcomes measured against a comparator, and this page does not present them as though they were.
Evidence & regulatory status
The pharmacokinetics ARE published, and they are animal. He et al., Front Pharmacol 2022;13:1026182 (PMID 36588717) gave single intravenous and single and repeated intramuscular doses to rats and beagle dogs: elimination half-life of prototype BPC-157 under 30 minutes, linear kinetics at all doses, intramuscular bioavailability ~14–19% in rats and ~45–51% in dogs, excretion by urine and bile, rapid metabolism to small peptide fragments and then to free amino acids. The paper describes itself as the first analysis of the pharmacokinetics of BPC-157. Every 'under 30 minutes' figure circulating on commercial pages traces here, and none of them says it is a rat and a dog.
There is one registered human trial, and it is invisible to the compound's own name. NCT02637284 (PCO-02, sponsor PharmaCotherapia d.o.o.) is a Phase 1 safety and pharmacokinetics study in 42 healthy volunteers. Its intervention is not called BPC-157 — it is called Bepecin, delivered as 1, 3 or 6 oral tablets each containing 1 mg. A search on 'BPC-157' does not return it as a treatment record, which is why page after page states that no human trial exists. The trial's status is 'unknown', meaning the sponsor has not updated it, and no results are posted.
That trial tested the route almost nobody discusses. The registered human study is ORAL. The route the community reports is subcutaneous. So the single human dataset that exists, incomplete as it is, does not describe what people are actually doing.
Do not cite NCT07437547. A Phase 2 hamstring-strain record for BPC 157 appears in registry searches; its sponsor account is the same one that publishes records opening 'This fictional study is an example of a ClinicalTrials.gov-style record.' This page treats that account as unusable, and says so rather than quietly omitting it.
Regulatory: not FDA-approved. In 2023 the FDA placed BPC-157 in a category that restricts pharmacy compounding, and the status has continued to move since — verify it rather than relying on any page, this one included. WADA-prohibited since January 2022, so it is banned in competitive sport.
Sold and discussed for research and educational use only.
Research timeline
Dated milestones taken from the primary records: the molecule's discovery, its first registered human study, the trials that shaped the evidence and the regulatory decisions. Each entry links to the record it comes from.
Predrag Sikirić's group in Zagreb describes a gastric-juice protein it calls BPC and a 15-amino-acid fragment of it, BPC 157, reporting protective effects on lesions in many organs in rats; these are the oldest records PubMed indexes under the compound's names. PMID 8298609
A rat study reports faster healing of a cut Achilles tendon with BPC 157 and notes that the peptide is then in clinical trials for inflammatory bowel disease under the Pliva codes PL 14736 and PLD-116. PMID 14554208
A Phase 1 study in healthy volunteers of PCO-02, a product whose active ingredient is BPC-157, is registered by the company PharmaCotherapia, with one site in Tijuana, Mexico; the record has not been updated since December 2015, its status is unknown and no results are posted. NCT02637284
A Chinese group publishes a preclinical toxicology package for BPC-157 in mice, rats, rabbits and dogs, reporting no serious toxicity, no genetic toxicity and no embryo-fetal toxicity, and saying the data support an ongoing clinical study. PMID 32334036
A retrospective chart review from one Florida clinic reports knee-pain relief in 14 of 16 patients given BPC-157 into the joint, alone or with thymosin beta-4; there was no control group and no standard outcome measure, only a phone survey. PMID 34324435
A pilot report that its authors describe as the first on BPC-157 given into a vein in people covers two participants at a private Florida clinic, both of whom had received it before; the authors report no changes in heart, liver, kidney, thyroid or blood-sugar markers. PMID 40131143
FDA's page on compounding safety risks, as updated on this date, lists BPC-157 among substances that had been in Category 2 (significant safety risks) and whose nominations were withdrawn by the nominators; it cites immunogenicity, impurity and characterisation concerns and too little safety information. FDA · compounding safety risks, Apr 22, 2026
BPC-157 goes before FDA's Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee for the pharmacy-compounding (503A) list, evaluated for ulcerative colitis; FDA's briefing document concludes that the balance of criteria weighs against listing it. No minutes or vote were posted by 4 Oct 2026. FDA · PCAC briefing document, Jul 23–24, 2026
Records checked Oct 4, 2026
Claims at a glance
The claims most often made about this compound, each with the strongest kind of evidence we found for it. The grade says what was studied, not whether the claim is true; the line beside it says what that study showed.
Heals tendons, ligaments and muscleAnimal studies only. Four rat injury models, all from one laboratory, point the same way; no human tendon, ligament or muscle study of any design exists. PMID 14554208
Treats ulcerative colitis and gut damageHuman, randomised trial. One placebo-controlled trial in 53 people with ulcerative colitis, published only as a meeting abstract; the difference from placebo was not statistically significant. FDA · PCAC briefing document, Jul 23–24, 2026
Relieves knee and joint painHuman, non-randomised. One retrospective chart review of 12 patients at a single clinic, with no control group and pain recalled by telephone months later. PMID 34324435
Reduces inflammationAnimal studies only. Rodent work only; the one finished human study of inflammation markers has posted no results, and FDA describes the anti-inflammatory mechanism as a hypothesis. FDA · PCAC briefing document, Jul 23–24, 2026
Has a half-life of under 30 minutesAnimal studies only. Measured in rats and dogs, where it lasted minutes; no human half-life has been measured. PMID 36588717
Is proven safe in peopleHuman, non-randomised. Five small, short human studies, about 81 people in all, none designed to detect harm; there are no carcinogenicity studies. FDA · PCAC briefing document, Jul 23–24, 2026
The reasoning behind each grade, study by study, is in this guide's Benefit & Outcome Review.
Grades checked Oct 5, 2026
A printable reference sheet with the compound's key facts, storage guidance and a vial record comes with All-Access Lifetime.
Half-life & pharmacokinetics
Under 30 minutes, and the species matters more than the number. That figure comes from He et al. 2022 (PMID 36588717), which measured the elimination half-life of prototype BPC-157 after intravenous and intramuscular dosing in rats and beagle dogs and found it under 30 minutes with linear kinetics across the doses tested. No human pharmacokinetic study of BPC-157 has been published, so there is no human half-life to quote — the figure everyone quotes is an animal one that lost its species somewhere in the copying. The same study found intramuscular bioavailability of roughly 14–19% in rats and 45–51% in dogs, a two-to-three-fold difference between two species, which is a useful caution against assuming any of it transfers to a third. The practical inference people draw — that a short half-life is why protocols describe once- or twice-daily administration — is a reasonable one, but it rests on animal data. Claims that localized effects outlast plasma presence are not established in humans.
Reported side effects & toxicology
Human safety data is thin, and the reason is simply that the trials have not been run: one Phase 1 study in 42 volunteers, oral, no posted results. Community-reported effects are generally described as mild — fatigue, nausea, headache, injection-site reactions — but a set of self-reports with no comparator and no systematic collection cannot establish a risk profile. The animal pharmacokinetic work reports rapid breakdown into small peptide fragments and then into free amino acids entering normal metabolism, which speaks to disposition rather than to safety. BPC-157 is not for human consumption as sold, is not FDA-approved, and is WADA-prohibited.
Storage & handling
Lyophilized (unmixed): store cold; long-term typically −20°C / freezer; stable refrigerated short-term.
Reconstituted: refrigerate (~2–8°C); commonly reported usable window ~2–4 weeks; keep away from light; do not freeze once mixed.
References
Primary sources cited on this page: He L. et al., 'Pharmacokinetics, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of body-protective compound 157', Front Pharmacol 2022;13:1026182 (PMID 36588717); ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02637284 (PCO-02, PharmaCotherapia d.o.o.); PubChem CID 9941957; the WADA Prohibited List; FDA compounding-category notices. Regulatory status continues to evolve — verify it against the source rather than against this page.
Evidence File
The BPC-157 Evidence File: Three Registry Records, Five Human Studies, and the Route Nobody Has Studied
Most public accounts of what is known about BPC-157 in humans are written from secondary sources, and the secondary sources disagree with the primary ones. This module rebuilds the record from documents fetched directly: every ClinicalTrials.gov entry returned across sixteen named synonym and development-code searches, the complete field set of each record including the submission-tracking and annotation blocks most readers never open, and the FDA briefing document prepared for the July 2026 Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee, whose Appendix 1 is the fullest public inventory of human BPC-157 exposure located for this file. Every search is named, every route and amount is attributed to the document that states it, and registry facts are kept separate from what review articles say about them.
3 registered trials, from a sweep of 16 synonym and code terms
Results released to the registry in 2016, then un-released
1 randomised human trial; between-group CI runs -4.84 to 1.62
0 published human studies used the subcutaneous route
The entire registered record, and the sixteen searches that establish it
NCT02637284: an oral study, and results that were released and then withdrawn
The other two records: a completed gummy study, and a Phase 2 that cannot corroborate
Where the human data actually lives: FDA's compounding appendix
The only randomised placebo-controlled trial, and what its interval says
Routes and amounts side by side, and the route that has never been used
The half-life figure, its species, and the human number that does not exist
The regulatory position after the July 2026 advisory committee
8 more sections in the Evidence File for BPC-157
Unlock the Evidence File, Sourcing File and Benefit & Outcome Review for BPC-157 for $14 — or every compound in the library, plus the printable reference sheets, for $99.
The sections above this one stay free to read without an account.
Sourcing File
The BPC-157 Sourcing File: Two Substances Under One Name, and the Arithmetic Between the Label and the Molecule
BPC-157 is sold under a common name that maps to two different active ingredients with different registry identifiers, different CAS numbers and different molecular weights, and the certificates circulating in the market routinely mix the two. This module works from the identifier records themselves, re-fetched for this file, and from the two certificates of analysis a federal reviewer read line by line and tabulated: which numbers a document should carry, which mass a spectrometry line should print, how counter-ion and water content move the amount of peptide actually in a vial, and which tests the market's documents leave out. Every computation is shown rather than asserted, so each one can be checked.
Two UNIIs, two CAS numbers, one common name shared between them
1418.70416 Da neutral monoisotopic; 1419.5 is the average mass
A 5 mg acetate vial can work out to about 4.2 mg of free base
FDA: no endotoxin, aggregate or bioburden result on either nominator CoA
One common name, two active pharmaceutical ingredients
Which mass belongs on a mass-spectrometry line
The counter-ion arithmetic that sits between the label and the molecule
Two real certificates, read line by line
What a complete document would carry, grouped by the question each test answers
Failure modes this compound actually shows
Storage figures sourced to vendor pages, and the degradation routes in this sequence
7 more sections in the Sourcing File for BPC-157
Unlock the Evidence File, Sourcing File and Benefit & Outcome Review for BPC-157 for $14 — or every compound in the library, plus the printable reference sheets, for $99.
The sections above this one stay free to read without an account.
Benefit & Outcome Review
The BPC-157 Benefit and Outcome Review: Every Marketed Claim Graded Against What Was Actually Measured
BPC-157 is marketed on a set of claims that are usually stated without saying what kind of subject produced them. This module separates the tiers and keeps them separate in every sentence: a person given the compound and measured, a live animal, or cells and excised tissue in a bath. Each marketed claim is taken in turn with the named studies behind it, their species, routes, amounts, comparators, time courses, effect sizes where the authors published numbers, non-responder counts where they were reported, and the limitations the authors themselves wrote down. It also names the statements that the underlying papers do not support, including one where a paper's own title and its own abstract disagree.
36 studies in one systematic review: 35 preclinical, 1 clinical
No dose-response: 10 ng/kg and 10 mcg/kg gave the same effect size
3 FAERS reports, all injectable, one positive on rechallenge
0 human trials comparing it against an approved therapy
How claims are graded here, and the trap sitting inside the source abstracts
Tendon, ligament and muscle: four rat models, one laboratory, and no human study
Gut, ulcers and colitis: the one randomised human result, and a prophylactic animal literature
Joint and knee pain: one chart review, read with its authors' own limits attached
Inflammation markers: a completed study with nothing posted, and a mechanism stated as a hypothesis
Human tissue is not a human being: the 2026 arterial-ring experiment
Safety: an animal package by one route, a coagulation signal, and three post-market reports
Comparators, and the sentences this review will not write
8 more sections in the Benefit & Outcome Review for BPC-157
Unlock the Evidence File, Sourcing File and Benefit & Outcome Review for BPC-157 for $14 — or every compound in the library, plus the printable reference sheets, for $99.
Quick answers about guide scope, access, and educational use context.
Is BPC-157 FDA-approved?
No. It is not FDA-approved for the uses discussed and is sold for research and educational use only. In 2023 the FDA placed it in a category restricting pharmacy compounding, and that status has continued to move since — check the current position rather than relying on any page.
Has BPC-157 ever been tested in humans?
Once, in a registered trial, and not under this name. NCT02637284 is a Phase 1 safety and pharmacokinetics study in 42 healthy volunteers run by PharmaCotherapia d.o.o., and its intervention is listed as Bepecin — a PubChem synonym for BPC-157 — given as oral tablets of 1 mg each. That naming is why searches on 'BPC-157' return no human treatment record and why so many pages state that none exists. The trial's status is 'unknown' and no results have been posted.
What is the BPC-157 half-life?
Under 30 minutes in rats and beagle dogs, from He et al., Front Pharmacol 2022 (PMID 36588717) — the first published pharmacokinetic analysis of the compound. There is no published human half-life. Any page quoting the figure without naming the species is quoting an animal study it has not read.
Is there an established BPC-157 dose?
No. No trial supports the subcutaneous amounts that circulate in community reports: the one human study used oral milligram tablets, and the animal pharmacokinetic work used intravenous and intramuscular routes. Those amounts describe what people report doing, not an established dose, and this page does not reproduce them.
Is oral BPC-157 as good as injected?
The published record cannot answer that, and it is worth noticing that it points the opposite way to the usual assumption: the only registered human trial is the oral one. What exists on absorption is animal data on a different route — intramuscular bioavailability around 14–19% in rats and 45–51% in dogs. No head-to-head comparison of routes has been published in any species.
Is BPC-157 banned in sport?
Yes — it has been on the WADA Prohibited List since January 2022.
Is there a Phase 2 trial of BPC-157 for hamstring injuries?
A record describing one appears in registry searches, and this page does not cite it. It comes from a sponsor account whose other records open by stating that they are fictional or example records. Until someone establishes otherwise, it should not be treated as evidence that a trial is running.
What are BPC-157's identity numbers?
PubChem CID 9941957, molecular formula C62H98N16O22, molecular weight 1419.5, CAS 137525-51-0, sequence H-GEPPPGKPADDAGLV-OH. A certificate of analysis that disagrees with the formula or the mass is describing something else.
Compliance and trust notes
Educational content only; no personalized health or outcome claims.
No personalized use recommendation outputs.
Use this material for general learning and research-context literacy.
A certificate of analysis (COA) is a laboratory’s report on one sample of one batch. The single most useful thing to know about it is that purity and identity are two separate results that fail in different ways. A high purity figure says the sample was mostly one substance; it does not say that substance was BPC-157. Identity — normally a mass-spectrometry result matching the expected molecular weight — is what establishes what the material actually is, and a certificate reporting purity alone has not answered that question.
Two further limits are worth holding onto. Mass per vial is its own test: a vial can be 99% pure and still contain less material than the label claims. And sterility, endotoxin, heavy metals and residual solvent screening are separately commissioned tests, usually priced individually — so a “third-party tested” badge asserts none of them unless the certificate names them. Check that the batch or lot number on the document matches the vial in front of you; an unmatched certificate describes someone else’s material.
Medibact does not test, endorse or resell peptides, and publishes no rating of any laboratory. How to read a peptide certificate of analysis walks through the document section by section, and what each COA field establishes covers the field-by-field detail and the laboratories that publish their methods.
You’ll need bacteriostatic water
The diluent for reconstituting BPC-157
Reconstitution is volume arithmetic — it assumes a lyophilized vial is dissolved in bacteriostatic water, which is sterile water preserved with 0.9% benzyl alcohol. The preservative is what allows a vial to be entered more than once; plain sterile water carries none and is single-entry by design. Medibact supplies USP-grade Bacteriostatic Water for Injection in a 30 mL multi-dose vial, produced in an FDA-registered U.S. facility and shipped from the United States, for research use only. One 30 mL vial covers 30 reconstitutions at 1 mL each, 15 at 2 mL, or 10 at 3 mL — division only, not a dosing recommendation.
Educational use only — not medical advice. This guide summarizes information reported in published research and community practice for educational purposes. It is not medical advice and not a recommendation to use any compound. Any doses, schedules, or combinations shown are examples of what has been reported, not instructions for you. Many peptides described here are research compounds that are not FDA-approved for the uses discussed and may be investigational or restricted. Effects, risks, and legal status vary; individual needs and results vary. Consult a qualified, licensed healthcare professional before making any decision. Do not use this content to diagnose, treat, or dose yourself.
