Why testing matters
This isn't a hunch about the gray market. When researchers have bought products online and put them through anti-doping-grade analysis, the findings have been consistent for years. Every figure below is a documented finding about the market as a whole — not a claim about any particular seller.
of 44 products bought online actually contained the compound named on the label
JAMA · 2017contained a different, unapproved drug instead
JAMA · 2017contained no active compound at all
JAMA · 2017only — matched the dose stated on the label
JAMA · 2017The anchor study
In 2017, researchers working with the US Anti-Doping Agency and Brigham and Women's Hospital bought 44 products sold online as selective androgen receptor modulators and analysed them with anti-doping-grade methods. Roughly half contained what the label said. A quarter contained substances that appeared nowhere on the label. Fewer than half matched their stated dose.
Van Wagoner et al., Chemical Composition and Labeling of Substances Marketed as Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators and Sold via the Internet, JAMA 2017;318(20):2004–2010 · PubMed
The GLP-1 repeat
The pattern didn't stay in one compound class. A 2024 analysis of semaglutide bought from online sellers without a prescription found delivered vials containing 29–39% more semaglutide than labeled — an overdose risk rather than a shortfall — alongside elevated impurity presence and outright nondelivery scams.
Multifactor Quality and Safety Analysis of Semaglutide Products Sold by Online Sellers Without a Prescription, J Med Internet Res 2024 · JMIR · PMC
Regulators are seeing it too
In June 2024 the World Health Organization issued a global medical product alert for falsified semaglutide batches detected in the United States, United Kingdom and Brazil. The FDA has issued warning letters to sellers of unapproved GLP-1 products, including salt forms never studied in humans.
WHO Medical Product Alert N°2/2024 · FDA warning letter example
Why now
The exposure is growing much faster than the scrutiny. Reporting on crypto inflows to gray-market peptide vendors puts the sector on track to cross a $100M annual run rate in 2026, roughly 25× its 2024 level — while spending on independent purity verification fell by about 88% per buyer over the same period. There are documented cases of former fentanyl-precursor suppliers moving into retail peptide sales.
Meanwhile the audience is mainstream: Gallup found 11% of US adults currently take GLP-1s — around 28 million people, up from 3% in 2024 — and roughly 19% of that usage is compounded or non-brand.
Becker's — the $100M gray market of peptides · Gallup 2026