WADA Banned Peptides: What the List Covers

Which Peptides Does WADA Ban?

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) does not ban peptides as a single group. Instead, the WADA Prohibited List captures specific peptide classes under named sections, most importantly Section S2 (Peptide Hormones, Growth Factors, Related Substances and Mimetics) and Section S0 (Non-Approved Substances). The peptide classes that most commonly appear include growth hormone releasing factors, growth hormone secretagogues, growth factors such as IGF-1 and thymosin beta-4 derivatives, erythropoietins (EPO), and gonadotrophins.

This is a regulatory and educational overview only. The compounds discussed here are laboratory research materials. Nothing below is dosing, administration, or anti-doping evasion guidance. The purpose is to explain how the published List is organised so that researchers and athletes can understand where a given class sits.

How the WADA Prohibited List Is Structured

WADA publishes a new Prohibited List each year. The current List is adopted annually and takes effect on 1 January, with a revised List typically released in the final quarter of the prior year. Rather than naming every compound, WADA groups substances into lettered sections and uses open-ended wording so that newly synthesised analogues are still captured.

Two distinctions matter when reading the List. First, some sections are prohibited at all times, meaning in-competition and out-of-competition, while others are prohibited in-competition only. Second, the List uses phrases such as 'including but not limited to', which means an unnamed compound in the same class can still fall within a section even if it is not written out by name.

• S0 Non-Approved Substances: a catch-all for substances with no current regulatory approval for human therapeutic use.
• S1 Anabolic Agents: anabolic androgenic steroids and other anabolic agents, where SARMs are often discussed.
• S2 Peptide Hormones, Growth Factors, Related Substances and Mimetics: the primary peptide section.
• S4 Hormone and Metabolic Modulators: modulators affecting hormones and metabolism.

Section S2: The Main Peptide Section

Section S2 is the heart of the peptide question and is prohibited at all times. According to the published List, it is organised into subsections covering different biological categories. This is where most research peptides associated with growth, repair, or oxygen transport are addressed.

• S2.1 covers erythropoietins (EPO) and agents affecting erythropoiesis, including certain fibroblast growth factors, hepatocyte growth factor, GATA inhibitors, and TGF-beta signalling inhibitors such as luspatercept and sotatercept.
• S2.2 covers peptide hormones and their releasing factors, including testosterone-stimulating peptides such as chorionic gonadotrophin (CG) and luteinising hormone (LH), and growth hormone releasing factors.
• S2.3 covers growth factors and growth factor modulators, including insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1 or mecasermin) and its analogues, mechano growth factors (MGFs), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), thymosin beta-4 and its derivatives, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).

Growth Hormone Peptides and Secretagogues

One of the most frequently searched areas is the group of growth hormone releasing peptides and secretagogues. The published List names growth hormone releasing hormone (GHRH) and its analogues directly, and separately captures growth hormone secretagogues and their mimetics.

These are prohibited at all times under S2, not only on competition day. The List names several compounds explicitly and then extends the class with open-ended wording so related molecules are included.

• GHRH analogues named on the List include CJC-1293, CJC-1295, sermorelin, and tesamorelin.
• Growth hormone secretagogues and ghrelin receptor agonists such as ipamorelin, GHRP-2, and GHRP-6 fall within the same broad class.
• Growth hormone (GH) itself and its fragments sit within the growth factor framework of S2.

TB-500, BPC-157 and the S0 Catch-All

Two compounds generate more questions than almost any others, and they sit in different places on the List. TB-500 is a synthetic version of thymosin beta-4, and thymosin beta-4 and its derivatives are named within the S2 growth factors subsection. On that basis TB-500 is treated as prohibited at all times.

BPC-157 is handled differently. It is widely reported as appearing under Section S0 (Non-Approved Substances), which captures any substance that is not currently approved by a governmental regulatory health authority for human therapeutic use and is not otherwise listed elsewhere. S0 functions as a backstop, which is why a compound can be prohibited even when it is not individually named in a specific class. Both are described in public anti-doping guidance as prohibited at all times.

Is BPC-157 legal in Australia? Is TB-500 legal in Australia?

Peptides Versus SARMs: A Common Mix-Up

SARMs (selective androgen receptor modulators) are often discussed alongside peptides, but they are chemically different and sit elsewhere on the List, generally associated with the anabolic agents and hormone modulator sections rather than S2. Because the two categories are frequently confused in online discussion, it is worth keeping them distinct when reading the published code.

The practical point is that the section a compound sits in determines how it is classified, whether it is prohibited at all times or in-competition only, and how the open-ended class wording applies.

Peptides versus SARMs explained

In-Competition Versus At-All-Times Prohibition

The List separates substances that are prohibited at all times from those prohibited in-competition only. The peptide sections discussed above, S2 and S0, are prohibited at all times. That means the prohibition applies during training, in the off-season, during recovery periods, and on competition day alike for athletes subject to anti-doping rules.

For the all-times categories, the prohibited status is fixed by the section a substance sits in on the List. It does not shift according to the part of the season, so the classification stays the same across training, off-season and competition.

WADA, the TGA and Sport Integrity Australia

It helps to keep three bodies distinct. WADA is an international organisation that writes the World Anti-Doping Code and publishes the Prohibited List. It sets anti-doping rules for sport but is not a national medicines regulator.

In Australia, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) regulates therapeutic goods, including how substances may be supplied, imported, and marketed. That is a separate legal framework from anti-doping. Anti-doping rules derived from the WADA Code are administered in Australian sport by Sport Integrity Australia. A substance can therefore be relevant to more than one framework at once, and the research-use status of a laboratory compound is a distinct question from both its WADA classification and its therapeutic regulation.

How to Read the List Responsibly

If you want to confirm the status of a specific compound, the authoritative source is the current WADA Prohibited List itself, read together with the section headings and the open-ended class wording. Anti-doping agencies also publish athlete guidance and checking tools that reference the current List year.

Because the List is revised annually and uses broad class language, a compound that is not named individually can still fall within a prohibited class. Reading the section definitions, rather than only scanning for a specific name, is the most reliable approach.