How we measured and what the numbers mean
The main source is Google Trends, a public tool that shows relative interest in a search term within a chosen country. A value of 100 marks the week with the most searches in the period; every other value is a share of that peak. The index does not say how many people searched, only how interest changed over time. Because Google samples searches on every request, we pulled each series several times on 19 October 2026 and averaged the results; in a small market like Slovenia, yearly averages are more reliable than single weeks. We added keyword-tool estimates of monthly search counts and public statements from regulators, media and courts. None of the figures here is an estimate of use: a search is not a purchase, and a purchase is not use.
Slovenia: from "not enough data" to steady interest
Until 2023 the Slovenian word "peptidi" was so rare that Google registered no interest at all in most weeks; in 2022 and 2023 it picked up a signal in roughly one week out of six. 2024 is the first year with searches in most weeks, two out of three; in 2026 it is every week. The yearly averages of the index climb like stairs: about 4 in 2022, 5 in 2023, 21 in 2024, 24 in 2025 and 61 in 2026 (through mid October). Interest this year is two to three times 2024 and 2025 and more than fifteen times 2022. The highest week so far was the first week of September 2026, two days after N1 reported on unapproved peptides and four months after the JAZMP warning. In absolute terms the market stays small: keyword tools estimated about 170 searches a month for "retatrutide slovenija" and about 90 for "retatrutide cena" in July 2026. Slovenia does not search much, but it searches more every year.
One molecule carries half the interest
Put four terms on the same scale and the engine of the growth shows itself. "Retatrutide" barely exists in Slovenia before 2025; it averages 13 in 2025 and 74 in 2026, peaking in May 2026. On the shared 2026 scale, "retatrutide" almost matches the generic word "peptidi": a single peptide that is still in clinical trials draws nearly as many searches as the whole category. "BPC 157" is barely measurable in Slovenia and "semaglutid" holds a low, flat line. Among the related queries for "peptidi" over the past year, the top ones are "kolagen peptidi" (collagen peptides) and the English "peptides"; the fastest riser is "ozempic", which Google flags as growing by more than 6,000 percent. Two conclusions follow. First, the Slovenian word covers two different worlds, collagen supplements and research peptides, and people mix them up. Second, the growth is driven by the weight-loss story, not by recovery or anti-ageing.
United States, Germany, United Kingdom: the same curve, just earlier
Slovenia is not special; it is a delayed copy. In the US the yearly average for "peptides" rose from 8 in 2021 to 14 in 2024, 26 in 2025 and 73 in 2026, peaking in early April 2026; this year's interest is about ten times 2021 and nearly three times last year. Germany shows the same shape (3 in 2021, 25 in 2025, 77 in 2026), and so does the UK (6, 30, 86). The best-known single peptide, BPC-157, peaked in the US in July 2025 and has stayed high since; "retatrutide" jumped in the US from 2 in 2024 to 20 in 2025 and 78 in 2026, peaking in June 2026. Everywhere the story is the same: a flat line until 2023, a bend in 2024, and an explosion in 2025 and 2026.
Timeline: what set the growth off
The growth did not come out of laboratories. It came from three directions at once: weight-loss drugs, social media, and regulatory decisions that unintentionally pushed demand into the grey market. In November 2023 the FDA approved tirzepatide for obesity and GLP-1 drugs became a global topic; the same year the FDA placed nineteen peptides, among them ipamorelin, CJC-1295 and melanotan II, on a list that pharmacies may not compound from, closing their legal route in the US. In 2024 a study in JMIR measured semaglutide sold online without a prescription at 7.7 to 14.4 percent purity against a declared 99. In 2025 "BPC 157" peaked in US search. In March 2026 Slovenian media covered the trend at length for the first time (Večer, NaDlani); on 3 April ProPublica described the US administration's plan to reverse the compounding ban; on 23 April JAZMP published its warning on injectable peptides. In July 2026 an FDA advisory committee recommended, by narrow margins (eight to six for BPC-157), that BPC-157, TB-500, KPV, MOTS-c, epitalon and semax be allowed for pharmacy compounding, against the advice of the agency's own scientists on every one of them; the vote is not binding and nothing has been approved. On 12 August Eli Lilly filed six lawsuits in the US against retatrutide sellers and referred more than 200 people and companies to the authorities. On 30 August N1 wrote about "numerous Slovenian websites" selling peptides, and in the first week of September Slovenian search hit its peak.
What people actually ask
The search data matches what lands in our inbox. Four questions keep coming back: is this legal at all, and who is liable; how long does a vial stay stable and how should it be stored; what is the difference between two similar peptides; and whether "this can be used for weight loss". We do not answer the last one, because we may not and because we do not know: none of the peptides we sell is authorised for use in humans, and for none of them does data exist that could answer that question honestly. The first three can be answered precisely and with sources, and that is what this series will do, one question a week.
What the numbers do not tell you
Searching is not using. Nobody in Slovenia measures how many people actually buy or use peptides; the JAZMP warning talks about websites, not user counts, and the media tell individual stories. Even in the US the only user data come from surveys commissioned by interested parties. The second gap is bigger: interest is growing, knowledge is not. A 2025 systematic review of BPC-157 found 36 relevant studies among 544 publications, 35 of them in cells and animals and a single one in humans. That ratio, 35 to 1, is the most important number in this article and the reason the series has seven more parts.
Coming up in the series
Next week: is buying research peptides legal in Slovenia, what may a seller do, what does a buyer risk, what does customs do, and what are the penalties under the Medicines Act, with the articles and links. After that: why the market is so opaque, why there is no human research, where retatrutide really stands, what user surveys show, what can go wrong and what a certificate of analysis cannot see, and where this is heading by 2030. Every article will carry sources you can check yourself. All products on peptid.si are for research use only (RUO), are not approved for use in humans or animals, and we do not answer questions about use.
References / Links
- Google Trends (2026). Zanimanje za iskalne izraze "peptidi" (Slovenija), "peptides" (ZDA, Nemčija, Velika Britanija), "retatrutide" in "bpc 157", 2021 do 2026; povprečje več vpogledov, zajeto 19. 10. 2026. Google Trends. Web
- Vasireddi N, Hahamyan H, Salata MJ, et al. (2025). Emerging Use of BPC-157 in Orthopaedic Sports Medicine: A Systematic Review. HSS Journal. PubMed
- Ashraf AR, Mackey TK, Vida RG, et al. (2024). Multifactor Quality and Safety Analysis of Semaglutide Products Sold by Online Sellers Without a Prescription. Journal of Medical Internet Research. PubMed
- JAZMP (Javna agencija RS za zdravila in medicinske pripomočke) (2026). Opozorilo glede uporabe peptidov za injiciranje. JAZMP, uradna spletna objava. Web
- Damon A (2026). An FDA Reversal on Peptides Could Open the Market to Unsafe Drugs. ProPublica. Web
- ABC News (2026). FDA advisers narrowly vote to add 6 peptides to a drug compounding list. What's next? ABC News. Web
- CNBC (2026). Lilly sues six companies over alleged illegal sales of experimental obesity drug retatrutide. CNBC. Web
- Večer (2026). Zakaj so družbena omrežja obnoreli peptidi? Ljudje se injicirajo, zdravniki pa zaskrbljeni. Večer. Web
- Lorbek T (2026). Neodobreni, netestirani, nevarni, a vse bolj priljubljeni: stroka svari pred uporabo. N1 Slovenija. Web
- NaDlani.si (2026). Peptidi: zakaj so zdaj "vroča roba" in kje se skrivajo največje zmote. NaDlani.si. Web
- Austin SB, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (2026). Peptides are all over social media and the news. Here's what to know about them. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Web
