Glossary · Regulation
Gray market
In short
Gray market means: the substance is sold, but neither as a medicinal product nor as a food — usually declared as “for research purposes only”. This means no approval, no batch testing and no liability.
The label “research use only” is not a legal detail, it is the whole point: it exempts the seller from any product responsibility that would apply to medicinal products or food supplements. Nobody checks identity, purity, dose accuracy or sterility, and nobody has to.
For the buyer, this means: what is written on the vial is a claim. Independent analyses of peptides from this market regularly find deviations in quantity and purity — both upwards and downwards.
Legally, buying prescription-only substances this way is not covered in Germany. As a matter of principle, we do not link to such sellers.
“For research purposes only” is not a statement of quality, it is a liability exemption.
Where this comes up in the fact checks
- Tesamorelin – Not approved in the EU; sales to consumers run through this route.
- SS-31 (Elamipretide) – Widely available from gray-market sellers long before data were available.
- IGF-1 LR3 – A substance without any approval for use in humans, freely available to order.
Related terms: Visceral fat
Information only, not medical advice. The BK-Score is a subjective assessment according to disclosed rules – not a scientific evaluation. Scoring rules