Methodology

How we grade.

PepTrack exists to let you understand peptides honestly — which means being just as clear about how we judge them as about the verdicts themselves. Here’s the whole rubric: the evidence scale, the regulatory taxonomy, what every dose figure rests on, and how the catalog is sourced and checked.

01The evidence scale — A to E

Every compound gets one grade for how good the evidence is — independent of whether it’s legal or popular. The grade reflects the strongest honest read of the human data, not the loudest marketing claim.

A
FDA-approved, proven in RCTs4 compounds

Randomized controlled trials at scale, plus a regulator’s sign-off. The strongest evidence a compound can carry — real efficacy and safety data, not inference.

B
Human trials, not approved8 compounds

There is genuine signal in people, but the compound isn’t FDA-approved for this use. Expect gaps in trial size, duration, or independent replication.

C
Small or mixed human datanone yet

Preliminary, conflicting, or single-study human evidence — promising but not yet convincing. Currently empty: we don’t round weak evidence up to look stronger than it is.

D
Animal studies only4 compounds

Mechanism and rodent results, but no human efficacy data. Any human dose is an extrapolation, and the gap between a mouse and a person is wide.

E
Mechanistic or anecdotal2 compounds

A plausible biological story and user reports, but no controlled human evidence. The burden of proof is unmet — treat claims as hypotheses.

Why there’s no padding at C. A scale is only useful if the middle means something. We won’t promote animal data to “mixed human evidence” to fill a gap — if nothing earns a C, the row stays empty.

02Regulatory status — said plainly

Legal status is tracked separately from evidence, because the two come apart constantly. The single most important thing to internalize:

Removed from Category 2 legal to compound FDA-approved.

FDA-approved

Cleared by the FDA for a specific indication. The only tier where “approved” means what people think it means.

Investigational

In active clinical development — real trials, no approval yet. Not lawfully sold as a finished drug.

Removed from Cat 2 · pending PCAC

Taken off the FDA’s interim compounding list, awaiting committee review. Removal is not endorsement — and not the same as legal to compound.

Category 2 — restricted

Flagged by the FDA as posing significant safety risks for compounding. A caution, not a clearance.

Research-use-only — gray market

Sold “for research,” used off-label by people. No regulatory basis; quality and identity are unverified.

Banned / prohibited

Prohibited in sport (WADA) or otherwise restricted. Listed plainly, with the source.

03What a dose figure rests on

Numbers carry a tag so you never mistake a forum protocol for a label. Reconstitution examples are illustrative arithmetic, never a recommendation.

FDA labelStraight from the approved prescribing information.
Clinic protocolOff-label regimens used in practice — extrapolation, not an approved schedule.
Community / anecdotalForum- and user-derived. No regulatory basis; shown with an explicit warning.
04How the catalog is sourced

Each monograph is distilled from a research dossier of 584 de-duplicated sources across four research iterations, adversarially verified against primary sources — FDA dockets, DailyMed labels, ClinicalTrials.gov, and the peer-reviewed literature. Where sources disagree, we say so rather than picking the flattering one.

This field moves monthly. Everything is dated, and every monograph asks you to re-verify regulatory and dosing claims against the primary source before acting. Catalog last reviewed June 2026.

05What this isn’t

PepTrack is an educational, harm-reduction reference. It never tells you what to take, it isn’t a substitute for a clinician, and the interaction checker surfaces shared-mechanism and additive-load patterns — not a full drug-interaction database. Honest about the limits is still honest.

Not medical or legal advice. Re-verify against primary sources (FDA docket FDA-2025-N-6895, DailyMed, ClinicalTrials.gov) before acting.