Peptides—the tiny protein fragments that users inject to try to speed up recovery, boost energy, or slow aging—are all the rage. And two years after compounding pharmacies turned “cheap Ozempic” into a multibillion-dollar shadow industry, the FDA is deciding whether to hand the same playbook to a whole new category: wellness peptides. On July 23 and 24, the agency’s compounding advisory committee will review seven peptides—including BPC-157 and TB-500, the injectables your favorite biohacker (and RFK Jr.) won’t stop talking about—for possible approval to be legally mixed by specialty pharmacies. If that happens, the people who run telehealth’s biggest growth engine of the last few years are ready.

Start with Hims & Hers. The company built a real business on cheaper, pharmacy-mixed versions of Ozempic and Wegovy, then watched it get squeezed once the FDA declared the supply shortage over and later proposed excluding those drugs from the pharmacy compounding list (a final decision has been pushed to July 30). The company’s stock got hammered several times, forcing Hims to diversify its offerings. 

Now peptides are poised to be the next leg and Hims chief medical officer Dr. Anant Vinjamoori will be testifying at the FDA hearing on Thursday, the company confirmed. The company announced it was exploring expanding access to peptides and it “believes certain peptide therapies hold meaningful potential in helping Americans live healthier lives,” in an April statement. 

“I don’t think that’s a surprise, given their messaging in the market,” telehealth infrastructure company Wheel CEO Michelle Davey told me, predicting that big telehealth players will move in fast once peptides get the green light, sourcing from vetted, accountable pharmacies. Davey pointed to Needham research sizing the addressable peptide market, including gray-market use, GLP-1 add-ons, and general health-optimization peptides, at roughly $30 billion.

The wrinkle this time: peptide users don’t take one shot a week like Ozempic patients. Many stack multiple compounds at once. And there’s basically no long-term safety data on those combinations, partly because most popular peptides have never gone through large, controlled human trials, and are sold as “research chemicals” outside normal drug-approval channels.

Davey’s forecast for the next year: Expect a flood of copycat telehealth sites launching peptide “programs” the same way more than 80 founders with Shopify accounts launched GLP-1 clinics by late 2024. Then, over roughly six months, the well-funded platforms will out-compete the fly-by-night operators on price and credibility, and the smaller players will either get bought or die.

Jon Keidan, founder and managing partner of Torch Capital (one of direct-to-consumer telehealth company Ro’s top investors), sees the same dynamic playing out and thinks he already knows who wins.

“Everyone wins when there’s compliance,” Keidan told me. “Consumers get products that are actually what the label says: sterile, verified, correctly dosed. Legitimate operators get a durable, licensable business instead of a marketing trick that a single crackdown can erase. And regulators get demand flowing through channels they can actually monitor.”

His read on the FDA vote is simple: whichever way the advisory committee goes, “the demand doesn’t go away,” so the real fight is over whether that demand flows through a regulated, doctor-led system or stays in the gray market.

See you tomorrow,

Lily Mae Lazarus
X: @LilyMaeLazarus
Email: lily.lazarus@fortune.com
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VENTURE DEALS

- Adapter, an Austin, Texas-based provider of AI-data infrastructure for developers, raised $17.8 million in funding from GV and others. 

- Apaluma, an Albuquerque, N.M.-based provider of data-management software for government environmental records, raised $5.6 million in seed funding. Crosslink Capital, Kickstart, Haven Ventures, and Overwater Ventures led the round and were joined by Orange DAO and NM Vintage Fund.

PRIVATE EQUITY

- Green Street, backed by TA Associates, acquired StorTrack, a Southfield, Mich.-based provider of market intelligence, pricing data, and analytics for the self-storage industry. Financial terms were not disclosed.

EXITS

- Clarendon Capital acquired O'Donnell Metal Deck & Bar Joist, an Elkridge, Md.-based distributor of metal decking, steel bar joists, and related structural products, from Slate Capital Group. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

IPOs

- BlossomHill Therapeutics, a San Diego, Calif.-based oncology company developing small-molecule cancer medicines, filed to go public on the Nasdaq. Cormorant Asset Management, OrbiMed, Vivo Innovation, and Janus Henderson back the company.

- Latigo Biotherapeutics, a Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based biopharmaceutical company developing non-opioid pain medicines, filed to go public on the Nasdaq. Westlake BioPartners, Foresite Capital, 5AM Ventures, and Blue Owl Healthcare back the company.