NSW Health put out a warning on 19 October: 1,180 emergency presentations linked to peptides between 1 July 2025 and 30 September 2026. Five in July 2025, more than 217 in September 2026. ABC rounds the last month to almost 220. That is not an epidemic we have diagnosed. It is a count of presentations, from the state’s surveillance.

The products are sold as “wellness”: weight loss, injury repair, reversing ageing. The release names substances the packs may claim — BPC-157, GHK-Cu, TB-500, retatrutide, CJC-1295. None is currently approved in Australia, by the TGA, for any purpose. That is not a shopping list. It is the label list the authority doubts.

Minister Ryan Park, to ABC: people arrive at emergency departments very unwell, it is not minor; liver, kidney, allergies, vomiting. Do not buy on social media, from websites, from informal sellers. Only peptides prescribed by a practitioner in Australia and dispensed as a TGA-registered medicine. NSW says “professional” packaging is no guarantee.

When a serious case is likely due to peptides, NSW works with the TGA and, where relevant, police, to find the source. Quality testing stays with the TGA. Poisons Information: 13 11 26. If someone is unconscious or cannot breathe: 000. We have not written a dosing guide.

Tim Jones, of the RACGP, in Tasmania, not NSW: the situation is wide, he has seen 14-year-olds ordering online; he speaks of harm that does not come back. That is his account, not a Sydney hospital tally. Park: it will be a topic among health ministers in the coming months, because of the scale.

We have not convicted anyone. We have not said TGA-approved peptides are banned. The warning is on the unapproved ones, on social media and on unprescribed imports. The 1,180 figure is from NSW emergency departments, not from all of Australia.

Image: Sardaka, Prince of Wales building, Sydney, 24 September 2022, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. Not a 2026 emergency department.

Sources consulted: Health authorities issue unapproved peptide use warning after surge in NSW hospital visits — ABC News; NSW Health warns of surge in hospital presentations linked to peptide use — NSW Government.