Across Australia, "longevity" and "wellness" clinics, most of them online, sell injections that promise to slow ageing, build muscle, heal injuries and help you sleep.
 episode described a doctor prescribing a "stack" of them after a short questionnaire and a phone call. Many are peptides.
URL
embed-c0d722d85c
A peptide is a short chain of amino acids: the tiny building blocks of the proteins in our bodies. A few peptides, such as , are approved medicines.
But the peptides sold at online wellness clinics – with names such as – aren’t approved, nor are most other "anti-ageing" injections.
None has been shown to have the claimed effects in humans, and the medicines regulator they carry real risks.
Some people a supply for their own use. For some peptides, that is .
Others are that also need an importation permit a patient cannot get. Without the right authority, or if the peptides are sold on, importing them is .
And it doesn’t matter if the substances are labelled "research chemicals, not for human use" if, in substance, . Australian law does not recognise any "research chemicals" .
But others get these substances via online clinics that exploit a legal loophole: these injections are "unapproved" but that doesn't mean they're "banned".
What the medicines regulator does
Before a medicine can be sold in Australia, it usually has to be . To get there, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) – the government body that regulates medicines – must check it is .
The TGA , putting its limited resources where the danger is greatest.
But even a real, known risk may draw no because it's another regulator's job or because acting is resource-intensive, costly and may not achieve the aim of making patients safer.
Either way, the peptides mentioned above have never passed that check. In other words, they're "".
Even a real, known risk may draw no regulatory action because it's another regulator's job or because acting is resource-intensive, costly and may not achieve the aim of making patients safer.
Dr Christopher Rudge
Lecturer (Teaching and Research), Sydney Law School
How clinics get around the rules
Doctors have always been allowed to supply unapproved products in special cases, through the and .
That way, a patient with a rare cancer, for example, or a child who cannot take an approved medicine, still has options.
But some Australian clinics exploit a different exception. When a pharmacist mixes up a medicine intended for one patient – called – that preparation .
The rule was written for cases like a pharmacist of a tablet for someone who cannot swallow.
Making the same recipe in bulk and posting it interstate as injection pens is really , which .
But because each dose is labelled "for a particular person", it .
Two regulators, one gap
Australia splits the job of regulating supply of medicines across two regulators, plus , which can act against misleading claims.
The TGA oversees therapeutic products. It:
- what goes on the register
- the manufacturers
- the advertising
- can or prosecute a business.
But it doesn't regulate doctors or pharmacists. That falls to the (Ahpra), which is responsible for .
Ahpra can conditions to a practitioner's registration, suspend them, or take steps to . But this usually only happens , one practitioner at a time.
Ahpra has recently tightened its rules on and prescribing by doctors, so a script can’t be written after just completing a questionnaire. It has also tightened rules for .
But online clinics can slip through a regulatory gap. If the compounded product is notionally exempt, the TGA may not intervene, while the acts of prescribing and compounding fall to Ahpra, which works case by case and can therefore be slow.
Can these injections hurt you?
Yes. The TGA you often cannot be sure what is in the vial, whether the dose is right, or whether it is sterile.
Even when pure, these drugs can harm. A single dose of , up to three-fold for over a week. High IGF-1 levels are a of .
Peptides and anti-ageing injections are also very costly. A few weeks' supply .
Making the same recipe in bulk and posting it interstate as injection pens is really manufacturing, which needs a licence. But because each dose is labelled "for a particular person", it never faces the TGA's safety check.
Dr Christopher Rudge
Lecturer (Teaching and Research), Sydney Law School
When it goes wrong, who’s accountable?
The clearest wins against these businesses have been over their advertising, rather than harm to a patient.
In 2019, the Federal Court fined one company, Peptide Clinics, for advertising prescription peptides to the public. It found behind the online sales. With a real clinical relationship, the sales would have counted as clinical advice, which the advertising ban does not prohibit. The company .
These clinics depend on advertising, and is . So an advertising case can be brought against the whole business, not just one doctor.
Penalties run up to or . But the TGA rarely goes that far.
It usually , warning and educating first, then escalating if that fails.
The TGA also says it .
In July 2026, the TGA , admitting repeated warnings have not stopped the peptide trade.
So what needs to change?
We probably don't need new laws. Refinement of existing laws would do. The options include:
enforcing the ban on the advertising these businesses depend on
funding the TGA properly so it can pursue breaches
narrowing the compounding rule so it cannot work as a bulk manufacturing licence.
The government , removing (by then, sold to by online clinics compounding copies at scale), along with . It could do the same for these peptides.
The patients buying these injections are not reckless. They are trying to look after their health. But they may be relying on a promise the clinical evidence cannot support.
This article was originally published in The Conversation as  by Dr  from the Sydney Law School, ±¬ÁÏÍõ.
Hero image: Adobe Stock
Manual Name : Dr Christopher Rudge
Manual Description : Lecturer (Teaching and Research), Sydney Law School
Manual Address :
Manual Addition Info Title :
Manual Addition Info Content :
Profile image : /content/dam/corporate/images/sydney-law-school/people/christopher-rudge.jpg
Manual Type : profile
_self
Auto Type : contact
Auto Addition Title :
Auto Addition Content :
Auto Name : true
Auto Position : true
Auto Profile image :
Auto Phone Number : false
Auto Mobile Number : true
Auto Email Address : true
Auto Address : false
UUID : 861ef23f-6d5e-422e-984e-8a05df9c7b78
Media contact
Manual Name :
Manual Description :
Manual Address :
Manual Addition Info Title :
Manual Addition Info Content :
Profile image :
Manual Type : contact
_self
Auto Type : contact
Auto Addition Title :
Auto Addition Content :
Auto Name : true
Auto Position : true
Auto Profile image :
Auto Phone Number : false
Auto Mobile Number : true
Auto Email Address : true
Auto Address : false
UUID : 206fec2e-fb2f-4198-a64f-8ab74ba58cee