comparison
KPV vs BPC-157
Two compounds set against each other constantly, with very differently shaped records behind them.
KPV and BPC-157 are the two compounds people most often set against each other for inflammation and repair, and the useful comparison between them is not the one most pages make. It is the shape of each record: what exists, who produced it, whether anyone has taken the compound into a registered trial, and what regulators have actually done.
KPV sits at evidence grade D on this site's derivation, from ten tiered claim rows that are all animal, in-vitro or anecdote. BPC-157 carries no grade here at all, and the reason is worth stating before the table rather than after it.
This project has not yet run on BPC-157 the identifier-level source review it ran on KPV, where every PMID came off an NCBI record and every DOI was checked twice. So this page confines its BPC-157 statements to facts that come with a primary document attached: its two ClinicalTrials.gov registrations [4] [5], its position on the WADA Prohibited List [3], and its entry on the DoD supplement-ingredient index [6]. There is also at least one published human report, a 2021 retrospective account of intra-articular BPC 157 for knee pain [7], which is named here because a comparison that implied BPC-157 had no human literature would be wrong. Its design, its size and the tier it earns have not been assessed on this site, and until they are, no grade and no trial count for BPC-157 appears here.
Not medical advice
This page reports what has been documented about a compound. It is not medical advice, not a diagnosis, not a dosing protocol, and not a recommendation to obtain or use anything described here. Talk to a licensed clinician about anything concerning your health. Read the full disclaimer.
Reviewed against editorial standards Updated
Side by side
| Property | KPV | BPC-157 |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A three amino acid fragment of alpha-MSH: Lys-Pro-Val | A fifteen amino acid sequence derived from a protein found in human gastric juice, described in the official title of its phase 1 registration as a pentadecapeptide from a gastric source [5] |
| Evidence grade on this site | D, animals and anecdote, from ten tiered claim rows | Not graded here. A grade is derived from tiered claim rows, and the source review behind them has not been run |
| Human literature | None. No trial, no open-label series, no case report, and no pharmacokinetic measurement, on any route, confirmed by ClinicalTrials.gov, a PubMed clinical-trial filter, and FDA's own search [1] | At least one published human report exists: a 2021 retrospective account of intra-articular BPC 157 for knee pain [7]. It has not been assessed on this site, so no count and no tier is stated for it here |
| Registered human trials | 0. ClinicalTrials.gov returns no study of KPV as an intervention | 2, neither reported. A randomized phase 1 safety and pharmacokinetics study in healthy volunteers, 42 participants estimated, first posted 22 December 2015, status listed as unknown [5]; and a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 in acute grade II hamstring strain, recruiting, first posted 27 February 2026, primary completion estimated February 2027 [4] |
| Where the published work sits | What was studied, rather than what it showed: chemically induced colitis in rodents [8], provoked peritonitis in mice [10], transporter work in mice [12], and human intestinal and bronchial cell lines [8] [11]. The full set, including a rabbit corneal model and a diabetic mouse wound model, is on the KPV page with a tier on every claim | Not stated here. The source review has not been run, and characterising a literature this page has not read would be the practice this site exists to avoid |
| Proposed mechanism | Set out mechanism by mechanism, each carrying its own evidence tier, on the KPV page, and summarised with tiers in the evidence section below. FDA concluded that the molecular target itself remains unknown [1] | Not stated here, for the same reason as the row above |
| Routes with published work | Free peptide in mouse drinking water [8], systemic administration in mouse peritonitis models [10], and cell culture [8] [11]. Topical and gut-directed carrier routes are covered on the KPV page | Not stated here beyond the registrations, which describe administration to human volunteers [4] [5] |
| Human tissue permeation | Measured, and carried with its tier, in the evidence section below and on the KPV page [9] | Not the marketed route, and not addressed here |
| FDA 503A position | Not on the Bulks List. Two separate voting questions were put on 23 July 2026 [2], and FDA reviewers proposed against adding either form [1]. That the committee then recommended inclusion is reported by press coverage only: FDA has published no minutes or vote record | Also before the same committee that day. Its own 503A status is not restated here, because this page carries no primary document for it |
| WADA 2026 Prohibited List | Not named on the list. Reached by the S0 catch-all definition, and all S0 substances are Specified Substances [3] | Named on the face of the S0 class, prohibited at all times [3] |
| US Department of Defense, OPSS | No entry on the ingredient and substance index, checked 2 August 2026 [6] | Appears on the ingredient and substance index, checked 2 August 2026 [6] |
| What is missing from each | Any human measurement at all, of any kind, on any route | A reported result from either registration, and an assessment on this site of the published human report named above |
How the two evidence bases compare
The most consequential difference between the two is a registration. BPC-157 has a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 trial recruiting in acute hamstring strain, with primary completion estimated for February 2027 [4]. That is the first controlled test either compound in this pair has faced. KPV has no registration of any kind, and nothing currently in progress anywhere could change what is known about it.
This site rates the KPV evidence base at grade D on ten tiered claim rows, every one of them animal, in-vitro or anecdote, and every one cited by number on the KPV page. The largest of them is a set of seven rodent colitis studies, cited in full on the KPV page; one of them is on the list here [Animal] [8]. The most load-bearing negative is a permeation study in which KPV did not measurably cross intact human skin [In-vitro] [9]. A specific published negative also makes the receptor family KPV is usually assumed to use an unlikely route, in the authors' own words rather than this page's [Animal] [10] [11]. A 2021 liposome paper reports the opposite and is covered on the KPV page, so this is stated as unlikely rather than settled. The entry route into the gut lining runs through the PepT1 transporter, shown first in cells and then in mice [Animal] [8] [12].
No equivalent statement is made for BPC-157, and that is the point of the disclosure above rather than an oversight. Its literature has not been read at identifier level by this project, so no count, no tier and no grade for it appears here.
One asymmetry is worth naming even so, because it does not depend on a literature review. BPC-157 has been taken into two registered human trials and has at least one published human report [4] [5] [7]. KPV has none of those things. Whatever the animal work on either compound eventually turns out to show, only one of the two has ever been given to a person under a protocol somebody wrote down.
Our takeDifferent problems, and only one of them is a grading problem. BPC-157 has a first controlled trial that has not reported and a literature this site has not audited. KPV has no such trial, no registration, and nobody currently trying to start one.
Where they overlap and where they do not
The overlap is commercial rather than scientific. Both are sold into the same audience for inflammation and recovery, both turn up in the same combination copy, and both were in front of the same FDA advisory committee on the same day in July 2026 [2]. This site found no study of the two in combination, in any species, and FDA recorded the combination framing in its own review as evidence of promotion rather than as a finding [1].
The science does not overlap much, at least on the side this site has read. KPV is a gut and skin story built on an inflammatory signalling pathway and one specific transporter [8] [11] [12]. What the BPC-157 literature is built on is not characterised here, for the reason given above. What can be said is that no study has tested the two against each other, in any species.
The regulatory positions are close but not identical, and the difference is instructive. BPC-157 is named on the face of the WADA S0 class [3] and appears on the DoD ingredient index [6]; KPV is named in neither place and is reached only by general definitions. That gap reflects how much attention each has received rather than how well studied either one is, and reading it as a safety signal in either direction would be a mistake.
Frequently asked questions
Which one has better evidence?
Not a question this page answers, because the two records are not the same shape and one of them has not been audited here. KPV sits at grade D on this site's derivation: ten tiered claim rows, all animal, in-vitro or anecdote, and no human study of any design [1]. BPC-157 carries no grade here at all, because the source review behind a grade has not been run on it. What can be said is that BPC-157 has two registered trials and at least one published human report, and KPV has neither [4] [5] [7].
Has either been tested in people?
BPC-157, yes, though nothing has reported from a controlled trial. It has two ClinicalTrials.gov registrations, a phase 1 first posted December 2015 whose status is listed as unknown [5] and a phase 2 in acute hamstring strain that is recruiting [4], and a 2021 retrospective report of intra-articular BPC 157 for knee pain is published [7]. KPV, no. There is no registration, no case report, no open-label series and no pharmacokinetic measurement in a person, on any route [1].
Are they used for the same things?
They are marketed into the same audience, which is not the same thing. The published KPV work is concentrated on gut inflammation [8] [12] and, much less, on skin [9]. What the BPC-157 literature covers is not characterised on this page, for the reason given in the introduction. This site found no study comparing the two directly, in any species.
Is it common to take them together?
Combination copy naming both circulates widely, and the FDA recorded a regenerative combination framing of that kind in its own 2026 review of KPV, as evidence of promotion rather than as a finding [1]. This site found no published study of the two given together, in any species, so there is nothing to report about it beyond the fact that people write about it.
Why does this page not grade BPC-157 or summarise its animal studies?
Because this project has not yet run the identifier-level source review on it that KPV received, where every PMID came off an NCBI record and every DOI was checked twice. A grade is derived from tiered claim rows, and there are none for BPC-157 yet. An earlier draft of this page did assert a grade for it, and that draft was wrong in a way worth recording: it also said neither compound had human evidence, which the published knee-pain retrospective [7] contradicts. Both statements came out.
Are both banned in sport?
Both are prohibited, by different routes. BPC-157 is named on the face of the WADA S0 Non-Approved Substances class. KPV is not named anywhere on the 2026 list and is caught by the S0 catch-all definition, covering any pharmacological substance with no current approval for human therapeutic use. S0 substances are prohibited at all times, and the 2026 list states that all of them are Specified Substances [3].
References
- US Food and Drug Administration. KPV-related bulk drug substances: briefing document for the Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee, review dated 12 May 2026. FDA advisory committee materials. 2026. Source document
- US Food and Drug Administration. Final questions, Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee, 23 and 24 July 2026: whether FDA should include certain bulk drug substances on the 503A Bulks List. FDA advisory committee materials. 2026. Source document
- World Anti-Doping Agency. The 2026 Prohibited List, international standard, effective 1 January 2026. WADA. 2026. Source document
- Hudson Biotech. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 trial of pentadecapeptide BPC 157 for accelerated repair of acute grade II hamstring strain confirmed by MRI (NCT07437547). Recruiting; first posted 27 February 2026. ClinicalTrials.gov. 2026. Source document
- PharmaCotherapia d.o.o. PCO-02, a phase 1 pilot study in healthy volunteers to assess the safety and pharmacokinetics of PCO-02, whose active ingredient is BPC-157 (NCT02637284). Status listed as unknown; first posted 22 December 2015. ClinicalTrials.gov. 2015. Source document
- US Department of Defense, Operation Supplement Safety. Ingredient and substance index. Checked 2 August 2026: BPC-157 appears, KPV does not. OPSS, Uniformed Services University. 2026. Source document
- Lee E, Padgett B. Intra-Articular Injection of BPC 157 for Multiple Types of Knee Pain. Altern Ther Health Med. 2021. PMID 34324435
- Dalmasso G, Charrier-Hisamuddin L, Nguyen HT, Yan Y, Sitaraman S, Merlin D. PepT1-mediated tripeptide KPV uptake reduces intestinal inflammation. Gastroenterology. 2008. PMID 18061177 DOI 10.1053/j.gastro.2007.10.026
- Pawar K, Kolli CS, Rangari VK, Babu RJ. Transdermal iontophoretic delivery of lysine-proline-valine (KPV) peptide across microporated human skin. J Pharm Sci. 2017. PMID 28343991 DOI 10.1016/j.xphs.2017.03.017
- Getting SJ, Schioth HB, Perretti M. Dissection of the anti-inflammatory effect of the core and C-terminal (KPV) alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone peptides. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2003. PMID 12750433 DOI 10.1124/jpet.103.051623
- Land SC. Inhibition of cellular and systemic inflammation cues in human bronchial epithelial cells by melanocortin-related peptides: mechanism of KPV action and a role for MC3R agonists. Int J Physiol Pathophysiol Pharmacol. 2012. PMID 22837805
- Viennois E, Ingersoll SA, Ayyadurai S, Zhao Y, Wang L, Zhang M, Han MK, Garg P, Xiao B, Merlin D. Critical role of PepT1 in promoting colitis-associated cancer and therapeutic benefits of the anti-inflammatory PepT1-mediated tripeptide KPV in a murine model. Cell Mol Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2016. PMID 27458604 DOI 10.1016/j.jcmgh.2016.01.006