The Mr. Green bodega sits on a busy stretch of Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, New York. Near the counter, you can buy the usual assortment of candy, gum, rolling papers, and soda. You can also purchase tiny vials of injectable peptides. So we did. And then we sent them to a lab.
\n\nMr. Green is one of several shops that went viral this summer for selling peptides, a broad class of amino acids touted for their ability to aid in everything from weight loss to injury recovery. For $376.20, we acquired four varieties: PT-141, for low libido; BPC-157, for healing and muscle recovery; NAD+, for cellular repair; and retatrutide, for weight loss. The clerk packed them up in an unlabeled paper bag and sent us on our way.
\n\nWIRED sent the vials to Finnrick, an Austin-based startup that offers independent peptide testing. Consumers can request tests for purity and whether samples contain common contaminants, as well as whether they contain the quantity of the substance listed. The company doesn’t have in-house labs but instead acts as a middleman between labs and individuals. In a few weeks’ time, Finnrick told us, we’d know if our bodega peptides were the real deal.
Original source: https://www.wired.com/