Dispatches

From the room, not the press release.

Reporting, interviews and investigations. Conference coverage, regulatory decisions, and conversations with the people who actually make, test and prescribe these compounds.

Trials 25 September 2026

Retatrutide has passed every Phase 3 test so far. You still can’t legally buy it.

Five pivotal trials, weight loss in bariatric-surgery territory, and a filing date. Meanwhile, the vials sold online are an entirely different product.

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Status & rules 9 August 2026

Six peptides cleared an FDA panel. None of them are legal to compound today.

The agency's advisory committee recommended six of seven peptides for the 503A bulks list. The headlines called it approval. It isn't — and the last substance to clear this committee on the same margin is still waiting, four years on.

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Also coming

The Lab

How to read a certificate of analysis

What the numbers mean, and what their absence means.

Interviews

Clinicians, chemists and lab directors

Conversations with the people whose names are on the paperwork.

Longevity

Biomarkers and healthspan

The wider field: what's measurable, what's marketing.