<description>&lt;p&gt;You probably already know someone doing peptides &amp;mdash; the amino acids that form the basis of popular new drug treatments like Ozempic and Wegovy. Today there are peptides meant to help with everything from weight loss, to cellular regeneration, to improved eye contact while talking. In San Francisco, there are even organized &amp;ldquo;peptide raves.&amp;rdquo; Yet most of these underground peptides haven&amp;rsquo;t been approved by regulators for human use in the US. So where are they coming from? And how do they get here? On this episode, we speak with two guests who have seen this growing subculture up close, &lt;a href="https://substack.com/@jasmine"&gt;Jasmine Sun&lt;/a&gt;, an independent writer covering AI and San Francisco culture, as well as Zak David, managing partner of Pirsek Technologies, which runs a peptide supplier, Peptide Partners.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots" data-link-cookie="1" data-destination="http://bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots"&gt;Subscribe to the Odd Lots Newsletter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;Join the conversation: &lt;a href="https://discord.gg/oddlots" data-destination="https://discord.gg/oddlots"&gt;discord.gg/oddlots&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;See &lt;a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener"&gt;omnystudio.com/listener&lt;/a&gt; for privacy information.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Odd Lots

Bloomberg

The Booming Business of Chinese Peptides

DEC 19, 202548 MIN
Odd Lots

The Booming Business of Chinese Peptides

DEC 19, 202548 MIN

Description

You probably already know someone doing peptides — the amino acids that form the basis of popular new drug treatments like Ozempic and Wegovy. Today there are peptides meant to help with everything from weight loss, to cellular regeneration, to improved eye contact while talking. In San Francisco, there are even organized “peptide raves.” Yet most of these underground peptides haven’t been approved by regulators for human use in the US. So where are they coming from? And how do they get here? On this episode, we speak with two guests who have seen this growing subculture up close, Jasmine Sun, an independent writer covering AI and San Francisco culture, as well as Zak David, managing partner of Pirsek Technologies, which runs a peptide supplier, Peptide Partners. Subscribe to the Odd Lots NewsletterJoin the conversation: discord.gg/oddlotsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.