The Peptide Revolution: Amazon Stops the Flow of BAC Water

Bacteriostatic water, or BAC Water, is a type of sterile water that is used in diluting various substances for injection. A significant portion of the approximately six million Americans who take GLP-1s for weight loss need it to reconstitute their medicine, and those who take peptides for other reasons also require this liquid solution. The importance of this substance can’t be overstated. Let’s just say that without it, a whole host of medicines are unusable. This is perhaps why the public was shocked to wake up one day and find that all BAC Water listings on Amazon had been removed. Gone. Vanished. Overnight.

Presumably, Amazon is in the business of making money, so why would the company remove a popular class of merchandise? Bacteriostatic water is preserved water that contains 0.9% benzyl alcohol. Its purpose is to prevent bacterial growth during the storage of freeze-dried substances. Until recently, a bevy of these injection prep bottles had been sold on Amazon. Then, one day, they were gone.

The Peptide Revolution

A quiet revolution is underway as researchers look at the role of peptides in the rapidly expanding anti-aging industry. Peptides are short strings of amino acids used for metabolism and hormone regulation as well as skin care. WebMD refers to them as the “building blocks” of proteins. Some peptides promote muscle growth, others promote fat loss, and some are effective in skin care products to stimulate skin elasticity. You can see why they are gaining in popularity. Anxious baby boomers do what they can to gain access to these medical substances, despite many still being labeled “not suitable for human consumption.” Even the always-cautious WebMD – while not recommending human consumption – points out that peptides are thought to be gentler on your body, have fewer side effects, and are generally safer.

As you probably can guess by now, most peptides are shipped in freeze-dried vials, ostensibly for easy handling and storage. This means that to use them, the purchaser must add BAC Water to make them injectable. So, if peptides are gaining in popularity and shipped dry, and a host of other drugs, including some GLP-1s, are prepared similarly, why would Amazon remove all BAC Water from their virtual shelves?

Good question.

Various reasons are given. A prevailing one comes from the website PeptideSupply.org:

“The short answer is this: bac water appears to have been caught in the crosshairs of stricter marketplace enforcement around regulated healthcare products, medical claims, sterility-related listings, and product compliance.”

Another short answer is that Amazon is getting gun-shy about government rules and regulations involving healthcare products. One could legitimately counter that BAC Water is not a pharmaceutical and shouldn’t be subject to heavy regulation. Some say that it is stuck in a “gray area.” Since many peptides are still in the research phase of development, companies that use bacteriostatic water in the laboratory are concerned about quality control. As PeptideSupply put it, “When Amazon faces a category where product quality, compliance documentation, or intended-use messaging may vary seller to seller, removal is often the simplest path.”

The BAC Water Drought

BAC Water isn’t the only quasi-medical item in a gray area. So are syringes, needles, alcohol prep supplies, storage containers, etc. While Amazon is often the easiest way to buy BAC Water, it is not the only option. There’s nothing quite as motivating as the competitive marketplace, and companies are already advertising their BAC Water. However, without the country’s largest retailer, supplies are going fast. PeptideSupply.org, for example, is sold out. And SimplePeptide.com advertises its product with a bold, red notice that reads: “Due to a significant increase in demand, this product is not eligible for coupons or discounts.”

The old saw “necessity is the mother of invention” may apply here. Heavy-handed government rules and regulations may stop Amazon, but it’s unlikely that aging American consumers will stop using their “not authorized for human consumption” peptides. It will just take a little more time and effort to get their hands on a vial or two of BAC Water.