A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The Trump administration is going to allow pharmacies to make some popular peptides. Those are strings of amino acids that can exert powerful effects in the body. There had been a federal ban, but peptides with unproven wellness claims have been available online anyway. Here's NPR's Sydney Lupkin.
SYDNEY LUPKIN, BYLINE: HHS said in a new policy that it will exercise enforcement discretion for a half dozen peptides, essentially looking the other way when they're made by small compounding pharmacies. So even though these peptides have not been through the Food and Drug Administration's rigorous drug review and approval process, they could become easier to get.
Joshua Fritzler is the president of Olympia & Wesley Pharmaceuticals in Central Florida. He says people have been asking his company about these peptides for years, and he's glad to finally be able to offer them to patients. But...
JOSHUA FRITZLER: There's an analogy where, like, you ever - you ask your parents for something. I had a blessed childhood. But you ask your parents for something for Christmas, and they get it for you, but it's the wrong color.
LUPKIN: He says that's how he feels because he hoped the policy would apply to all compounding pharmacies, not just the little ones. Outsourcing facilities, which are allowed to compound larger batches of drugs, aren't part of the new policy. So Fritzler says he doesn't think small compounders alone will be able to meet the demand.
A panel of advisers to the FDA voted to recommend expanded access to the six peptides back in July, in part because of illicit research used only peptides that are available online. Compounding, they said, would be safer. But the FDA's own scientists disagreed. Now some consumer advocacy groups, including Public Citizen, say the policy puts patients at risk by going around the FDA's approval process. Here's Dr. Robert Steinbrook, the health research group director at Public Citizen.
ROBERT STEINBROOK: Some people could take one of these peptide substances and not really have any adverse effects. But you're just rolling the dice, basically.
LUPKIN: Compounding pharmacies say the policy includes guardrails, including using only ingredients that meet certain requirements and reporting adverse events to the FDA. As for Fritzler, he says he hopes other pharmacies take care to follow those rules.
FRITZLER: The FDA has given a gift. You do not want them to take it away. So, like, for me, it's very important that the people that choose to enter this space take it extremely seriously with a lot of precaution.
LUPKIN: He says his pharmacy will need a little time to get its facility ready before it will be able to fill prescriptions.
Sydney Lupkin, NPR News.
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