Insulin was the first peptide drug to reach clinical use. In 1922, doctors began injecting diabetic patients with purified insulin extracted from pig and cow pancreases. It worked. Blood sugar levels dropped. Patients lived instead of died.
Since then, more than 120 peptide drugs have reached FDA approval. Calcitonin for bone loss. Growth hormone for short stature. Exenatide for diabetes. Sumatriptan for migraines. Oxytocin for labor induction. The common thread runs through all of them: the active compound already exists in the body. Researchers didn’t invent it. They extracted it, purified it, or synthesized a version of it.
The peptides in approved drugs are not inventions. They are discoveries. The body already figured out what works. Pharmaceutical research simply found a way to deliver it.
The peptides in approved drugs are not inventions. They are discoveries.