BPC-157 has been tested in people in only six small reports, 118 people in all, and no placebo-controlled study has shown it works, as of October 2026. Four trials are registered; none has posted results.
The count, as of October 21, 2026
6 published reports
118 people enrolled, about 83 given BPC-157
2 with a placebo group, both from the early 2000s
4 trial registrations, 0 with results
Tested in people Counted from the table below. The colitis trial did not say how many of its 53 people got BPC-157, so half are counted. Not included: 40 people in a finished 2025 gummy study that has posted no results.
New trials, FDA changes and side-effect reports, written in plain English. Every result says whether it was tested in people or in animals.
Six reports, oldest first. Two were placebo-controlled enema studies from Pliva, the company that developed BPC-157. Four had no control group, so they cannot separate the drug from natural recovery or expectation.
| Year | Study and design | People | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 to 2003 | Safety and blood levels of an enema form in healthy volunteers Randomized, placebo-controlled phase 1 Summarized in FDA briefing document, Appendix 1 | 32 | Most blood samples held too little BPC-157 to measure. The study tested safety, not benefit. |
| 2005 | Two-week enema trial in mild to moderate ulcerative colitis Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Summarized in FDA briefing document | 53 | Disease activity fell 3.2 points on BPC-157 and 1.6 on placebo. The gap between groups was not statistically clear (95% CI -4.84 to 1.62). |
| 2021 | Knee injections reviewed from charts, with a phone survey Retrospective chart review, no control group Lee and Padgett 2021, PubMed | 16 | 11 of the 12 who had BPC-157 alone said their knee pain improved a lot; 3 of the 4 on the combination did. No standard pain or function scale was used. |
| 2024 | Bladder-wall injections for interstitial cystitis Single group, no control Lee, Walker and Ayadi 2024, PubMed | 12 | 10 of 12 reported their symptoms fully gone after one procedure; the other 2 rated their improvement at 80%. |
| 2025 | Two days of IV infusions in healthy adults Single group, no control Lee and Burgess 2025, PubMed | 2 | No measurable change in heart, liver, kidney, thyroid or blood sugar markers over three days. |
| 2026 | Three dental patients with a numb lip and chin after surgery Case report, no control Froum et al. 2026, PMC | 3 | Feeling came back almost fully in all three after a four-week course of injections near the nerve. The authors write that natural recovery cannot be ruled out and the cases do not show cause. |
FDA's reviewers read the Pliva conference abstracts, which are not online, and summarized them in their 2026 briefing document; those two rows come from that summary. Link to a row by its anchor, such as #ruenzi-2005. How to judge a design like these: how to read peptide research.
The CSV holds every published report and trial registration with its design, participants, numbers enrolled and given BPC-157, result or status, source link and check date.
Staate. "BPC-157 human studies and trial registrations." Last checked October 21, 2026. https://staate.co/peptides/bpc-157/human-studies/
<iframe src="https://staate.co/embed/bpc-157-human-studies/" title="BPC-157 human studies and trials, counted by Staate" width="100%" height="640" loading="lazy" style="border:1px solid #d9e4df;border-radius:12px;max-width:100%"></iframe> <p style="font:13px/1.5 sans-serif;margin:6px 0 0">Source: <a href="https://staate.co/peptides/bpc-157/human-studies/">Staate, BPC-157 human studies: every report and trial, counted</a></p>
Between 2 and 53. The six published reports enrolled 118 people together. The hamstring trial now recruiting plans 120 on its own, more than all six reports combined.
Published reports
Trial registrations (planned, or enrolled for the finished gummy study)
Placebo-controlled No control group Registered trial, no results
Tested in people. Numbers are people enrolled or randomized as each source reports them; for the knee survey, the 16 people the authors reached.
Four on ClinicalTrials.gov, none with posted results. Two are placebo- or sham-controlled trials that have not finished, with 150 people planned between them. The 2015 tablet trial has posted no results and FDA found no published paper, and the 2025 gummy study, which enrolled 40 people, has posted no results.
Randomized, placebo-controlled, healthy volunteers. 42 people planned. Tijuana, Mexico.
Started October 2015; record last updated December 2015. Results: none posted, and FDA found no published paper.
NCT02637284 on ClinicalTrials.govSingle group, no control, sponsored by the gummy maker. 40 people enrolled. Las Vegas, United States.
Ran September to November 2025; registered August 2026. Results: none posted.
NCT07752381 on ClinicalTrials.govRandomized, quadruple-blind, placebo-controlled. 120 people planned. Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, China.
Started February 2, 2026; estimated to finish February 2028. Results: not due yet.
NCT07437547 on ClinicalTrials.govRandomized pilot; control arm listed as sham (no treatment). 30 people planned. University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock.
Estimated start January 2027. Results: not due yet.
NCT07803250 on ClinicalTrials.govRegulatory fact Registry records as shown on ClinicalTrials.gov on October 21, 2026. The rotator cuff record lists its control arm as "Sham (No Treatment)" while its summary describes a saline placebo and 20 patients against 30 planned in the enrollment field; we report the arm and the enrollment field as listed. The 2015 oral trial is often described online as cancelled, but the registry shows its status as unknown.
Mostly two sources. Three of the six reports come from one Florida physician, E. Lee, and two from Pliva, the Croatian company that developed BPC-157 as PL 14736.
The three Florida reports, on knee pain in 2021, interstitial cystitis in 2024 and IV infusions in 2025, all name Lee as first author and all appeared in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. None had a control group. Together they hold 30 people, the same 30 a 2026 systematic review counted and rated as very low certainty evidence.
Both Pliva studies list the company researcher M. Veljaca as an author, and neither went beyond a conference abstract. FDA found no approved BPC-157 product in any country. The animal research, starting with the University of Zagreb group that described BPC-157 in 1993, is on the BPC-157 profile.
They searched at different times and counted different things. Some leave out conference abstracts, some stick to sports injuries, and the newest report came out after every review.
| Source | Searched | Count | Why it differs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vasireddi et al., HSS Journal (2025) | To June 3, 2024 | 1 clinical study | Sports-medicine scope only, so the gut, bladder and infusion reports fall outside it. |
| FDA briefing for its July 2026 advisory committee | To December 4, 2025 | 5 clinical studies | Includes both Pliva studies (three conference abstracts). Written before the 2026 dental case report. |
| Poolton et al., Acta Orthopaedica Belgica (2026) | To June 1, 2026 | 3 studies, 30 people | The three Florida reports only. Neither Pliva study is among them, and the dental case report came later. |
| This page | To October 21, 2026 | 6 reports, 118 people | Full papers and conference abstracts, any condition, any route. Trial registrations counted separately. |
Our own search: PubMed for BPC157[tiab] OR BPC-157[tiab] OR "BPC 157"[tiab] OR bepecin[tiab] OR "PL 14736"[tiab] OR "pentadecapeptide BPC"[tiab] returned 230 records on October 21, 2026, of which four are reports that gave BPC-157 to people. The Pliva conference abstracts are not indexed in PubMed. Run the search.
In lab tests reported in 2020, BPC-157 did not cause gene mutations in bacteria or chromosome damage in hamster cells or mouse bone marrow (Xu 2020). That is a screen for one way drugs can cause cancer, not a cancer study. FDA's 2026 reviewers found no long-term cancer studies of BPC-157 in animals.
The worry comes from blood vessel growth: in rats with blocked leg arteries BPC-157 increased blood vessel growth, and in cell experiments it switched on VEGFR2, a signal tumors also use to build their blood supply (Hsieh 2017).
Tested in people None of the six reports looked for cancer, and none followed anyone longer than about a year. The side effects that were reported are on the BPC-157 profile.
Any injury, the injected and oral forms people use, and use for longer than a month. FDA concluded in 2026 that there is not enough clinical safety information to describe its safety.
Legal status is covered step by step on is BPC-157 legal: an FDA advisory committee voted 8 to 6 on July 23, 2026 to recommend allowing pharmacies to compound it (reported by AJMC), and as of October 21, 2026 no proposed rule has appeared in the Federal Register. How it compares with TB-500, which has never been tested on its own in people: BPC-157 vs TB-500.
Every name BPC-157 has gone by, including Pliva's code PL 14736 and the trade name Bepecin, in titles and abstracts. We screened the titles of all 230 records and read the abstract of every one that could involve people.
FDA's 2026 briefing document lists five human studies, including the two Pliva studies, known only from conference abstracts that are not on PubMed. We used FDA's summary for those two.
By intervention and keyword for BPC-157, BPC 157, PL 14736, PCO-02 and pentadecapeptide, then read each record. Records that only matched loosely were dropped.
People enrolled as the paper reports them. Lab studies on human tissue, such as artery rings from bypass surgery, are not counted, because no person took the peptide.
Ledger published with 6 reports and 4 registrations. Adds the September 30, 2026 dental case report, which no earlier count includes. Rechecked monthly.
How we label evidence: editorial policy.
We email when a new human study, a trial result or an FDA step changes what this page says. Daily peptide brief, free, every source linked.