Source: University of Colorado Anschutz - Department of Emergency Medicine
Publication Date: June 15, 2026
Medical Toxicologist(s): Matthew Zukerman, MD, FACMT
Keywords/Topics: GLP-1, peptides, FDA

University of Colorado Anschutz: Influencers Love Peptides, But Are They Safe and Effective?

The promotion of various peptide injections by some health and fitness influencers, celebrities, and people in the Make America Healthy Again movement – compounds that haven’t been approved as safe and effective – raises important questions about how drugs are tested, marketed, and used in today’s social media-fueled society, says medical toxicologist Matthew Zuckerman, MD, of the University of Colorado Anschutz Department of Emergency Medicine.

Zuckerman is an associate professor in the department’s Medical Toxicology and Pharmacology section. He is board certified in emergency medicine and medical toxicology.

At the urging of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – a leader of the MAHA movement, and himself a peptide user and enthusiast – the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which Kennedy oversees, has been moving toward making it easier for people to obtain peptide injectables. These are substances that the FDA itself has said present potential safety risks because of a lack of study of their effects on humans.

Zuckerman says that “the rise of telemedicine and direct-to-consumer marketing, and a greater focus on lifestyle medications, has led to an increased interest” in unapproved drugs such as peptide injectables.