At a glance
| Question | BPC-157 | TB-500 |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Synthetic 15-amino-acid research peptide. | Fragment associated with thymosin beta-4 biology; not the same as full-length thymosin beta-4. |
| Research focus | Tissue-repair, gastrointestinal, vascular and inflammatory models. | Cell migration, actin biology, angiogenesis and tissue-remodelling discussion. |
| Human evidence | Very limited; robust randomized efficacy evidence is lacking. | FDA says it has not identified human exposure data for drug products containing the TB-500 fragment. |
| Regulatory status | Not FDA approved. | Not FDA approved. |
| Big evidence trap | Treating extensive animal literature as proven human benefit. | Treating full-length thymosin beta-4 research as direct evidence for TB-500. |
What matters most
Neither compound has the kind of human clinical evidence that would justify presenting it as an established injury-recovery treatment. The especially important TB-500 distinction is that evidence for full-length thymosin beta-4 cannot simply be transferred to the fragment sold under the TB-500 name.