BPC-157 in Greece: why it is not available as a medicine and what batch documentation means

No. BPC-157 holds no marketing authorisation as a medicine through the European Medicines Agency (EMA): the agency's medicines catalogue has no entry for BPC-157 (checked 24/10/2026), so pharmacies do not supply it as such a medicine.

It is not intended for human or veterinary use. In the US it is in a transitional regulatory status and a final decision is pending. It is also on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List, which applies to athletes, in category S0 ("Non-Approved Substances").

BPC-157 is a synthetic peptide of 15 amino acids, with the sequence GEPPPGKPADDAGLV and a molecular mass of 1,419 (Staresinic et al., J Orthop Res 2003, PMID 14554208). It was described in the early 1990s as a 15-amino-acid fragment of a larger protein isolated from gastric juice and named BPC (Sikirić et al., J Physiol Paris 1993, PMID 8298609).

A detailed account of the research is in the article What is BPC-157? What the studies show. This article summarises the essentials, with a focus on its status in Greece.

No, it has not been approved as a medicine. In the European Union a finished medicinal product is placed on the market only with a marketing authorisation, either centrally through the EMA or at national level by the competent national authority. The authorisation requires data on quality, safety and efficacy from controlled clinical trials in humans.

No such trials were found in PubMed for BPC-157: a search on 26/10/2026, with a clinical-trial or randomised-trial filter, returned no results. The human data that exist are three small studies without a control group, described below. Without a marketing authorisation there is no finished BPC-157 medicinal product that is sold in pharmacies.

In the US, the authors of a 2024 pilot study noted that BPC-157 has not been approved by the FDA (Lee et al., Altern Ther Health Med 2024, PMID 39325560). Today it is in a transitional regulatory status and a final decision is pending. A 2026 systematic review also notes that the substance has not been approved by any regulatory authority for human use (Poolton et al., Acta Orthop Belg 2026, PMID 42885452).

Cells and animals. Most of the literature concerns cell cultures and experimental models in animals:

• Rats (Staresinic et al., J Orthop Res 2003, PMID 14554208): in an Achilles tendon transection model, a higher load of failure and higher values on a tendon functional index were recorded compared with the control group. In the same paper, in a culture of tendon cells, the peptide on its own did not change cell growth.
• Rat tendon cells in the laboratory (Chang et al., J Appl Physiol 2011, PMID 21030672): cell proliferation was not directly affected. Increased survival under oxidative stress and increased cell migration were measured.
• Human endothelial cells in culture and rats (Hsieh et al., J Mol Med 2017, PMID 27847966): in the cells, increased expression of the VEGFR2 receptor, which takes part in blood-vessel formation, was measured, with no change in VEGF-A. In a hind-limb ischaemia model in rats, a higher number of vessels was recorded.
• Independent research group, rats (Biçer et al., Jt Dis Relat Surg 2026, PMID 42542926): in 32 rats, divided into four groups of 8, the BPC-157 group had a higher load to failure than the control group, but the difference was not statistically significant. The total histological scores were also only numerically lower, without statistical significance.
• Toxicology in animals (Xu et al., Regul Toxicol Pharmacol 2020, PMID 32334036): no serious toxicity was recorded in mice, rats, rabbits and dogs. In dogs, only at the highest level tested, a decrease in creatinine was measured, which returned to normal 2 weeks after withdrawal.

Humans. The same PubMed search (26/10/2026) found three small published studies, all without a control group and with the same first author:

• Lee and Padgett, Altern Ther Health Med 2021, PMID 34324435: a retrospective chart review of 17 people with knee pain, of whom 16 answered a telephone survey. The outcome was self-reported and was not measured with a validated tool. In 4 of the 16, BPC-157 had been used together with thymosin β4, there was no control group, and no tool was used to measure function. The study does not allow a conclusion about efficacy.
• Lee et al., Altern Ther Health Med 2024, PMID 39325560: a pilot study in 12 women aged 39 to 76 with interstitial cystitis. The change in symptoms was recorded on a self-assessment questionnaire, without a control group. The authors reported no adverse events; the sample size does not allow a conclusion about safety or efficacy.
• Lee and Burgess, Altern Ther Health Med 2025, PMID 40131143: a pilot safety study in 2 adults, over 3 days. No measurable changes were recorded in laboratory markers of the heart, liver, kidneys, thyroid and blood glucose, and no adverse effects. The 2 people and 3 days do not allow a conclusion about safety.

A 2026 systematic review judged these three studies to be of poor methodological quality and the certainty of the evidence to be very low. Its authors concluded that BPC-157 should not be used clinically in humans outside controlled clinical trials overseen by an ethics committee (Poolton et al., Acta Orthop Belg 2026, PMID 42885452).

• Controlled studies in humans: no randomised controlled trial of BPC-157 was found in PubMed (search 26/10/2026). Research in humans is at an early stage and the studies are very small.
• Long-term safety: it has not been studied in humans. The only human safety study involved 2 people over 3 days.
• Pharmacokinetics: no human data have been published. In rats and dogs the molecule was rapidly broken down into smaller peptide fragments and amino acids (He et al., Front Pharmacol 2022, PMID 36588717).
• Replication of findings: the preclinical data are heterogeneous, and a 2026 review notes that independent, blinded replication is needed before any clinical translation (Demirtaş, Int J Mol Sci 2026, PMID 42794771). The independent 2026 rat study found no statistically significant difference for BPC-157 (PMID 42542926).
• Blood-vessel formation: the increase in vessels in preclinical models leaves an open question about long-term safety. A 2026 review lists, for unregulated peptides such as BPC-157, potential risks from product contamination and from pathological blood-vessel formation (Moiz et al., Mo Med 2026, PMID 42757290).

A certificate of analysis (COA) records:

• the identity of the substance, usually by mass spectrometry; for BPC-157 the measured mass is compared with its molecular mass, about 1,419 (PMID 14554208);
• the purity, measured by HPLC;
• the laboratory that ran the analysis and its date;
• the batch number the analysis refers to.

Research BPC-157 is usually described as a lyophilised (dry) powder in a vial. Published certificates of analysis are collected in the COA library.

No. It holds no marketing authorisation as a medicine through the EMA and there is no entry for BPC-157 in the EMA medicines catalogue (checked 24/10/2026). It is a substance under research.

The initials BPC stand for "Body Protection Compound", the protein of human gastric juice from which the sequence derives (Chang et al., J Appl Physiol 2011, PMID 21030672). BPC-157 is a 15-amino-acid fragment of that protein.

There are three small studies without a control group, in 16, 12 and 2 people, which do not allow a conclusion about efficacy or safety. No randomised controlled trial was found in PubMed (search 26/10/2026).

It is on the list of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), in category S0, which applies to athletes.

RUO stands for Research Use Only: material strictly for laboratory research, not for human or veterinary use.

• Sikirić P et al. J Physiol Paris. 1993. PMID 8298609 · DOI 10.1016/0928-4257(93)90038-u
• Staresinic M et al. J Orthop Res. 2003. PMID 14554208 · DOI 10.1016/S0736-0266(03)00110-4
• Chang CH et al. J Appl Physiol. 2011. PMID 21030672 · DOI 10.1152/japplphysiol.00945.2010
• Hsieh MJ et al. J Mol Med. 2017. PMID 27847966 · DOI 10.1007/s00109-016-1488-y
• Biçer O et al. Jt Dis Relat Surg. 2026. PMID 42542926 · DOI 10.52312/jdrs.2026.2951
• Xu C et al. Regul Toxicol Pharmacol. 2020. PMID 32334036 · DOI 10.1016/j.yrtph.2020.104665
• He L et al. Front Pharmacol. 2022. PMID 36588717 · DOI 10.3389/fphar.2022.1026182
• Lee E, Padgett B. Altern Ther Health Med. 2021. PMID 34324435
• Lee E et al. Altern Ther Health Med. 2024. PMID 39325560
• Lee E, Burgess K. Altern Ther Health Med. 2025. PMID 40131143
• Poolton JT et al. Acta Orthop Belg. 2026. PMID 42885452 · DOI 10.52628/92.3.15837
• Demirtaş H. Int J Mol Sci. 2026. PMID 42794771 · DOI 10.3390/ijms27188344
• Moiz A et al. Mo Med. 2026. PMID 42757290

An informational text summarising published research. It is not medical advice or usage guidance.