WADA-prohibited peptides

How to read the categories

The Prohibited List is not a list of substances. It is a list of classes, each with a handful of named examples introduced by “e.g.” or “including but not limited to.” That construction is deliberate: it means a compound synthesised last month, with no name anyone recognises, is already prohibited if it does what its class does. Every code in the tables above points at a class definition, and the compound sits inside it — sometimes because the list names it outright, sometimes because it plainly meets the definition.

The categories that recur here fall into four families. S0 captures anything with no current approval from any government health authority for human therapeutic use, which is why so much of the experimental peptide market lands there by default. S2 covers peptide hormones, growth factors and their mimetics — erythropoiesis-affecting agents under S2.1, testosterone-stimulating peptides under S2.2.1, growth hormone and its fragments under S2.2.3, growth hormone releasing factors under S2.2.4, and growth factors such as IGF-1 and thymosin-β4 derivatives under S2.3. S4 covers hormone and metabolic modulators, including myostatin-pathway agents at S4.3 and metabolic modulators such as AMPK activators and insulins at S4.4. M2 is not about substances at all — M2.2 restricts intravenous infusions and injections by volume, so a permitted substance can still produce a violation through the route it was given by.

“All times” is doing real work

Most entries above read “prohibited at all times, in and out of competition.” That is the strictest tier: there is no off-season. Substances prohibited only in competition are a separate and much smaller part of the list, and none of the compounds documented here sit there. A few entries are narrower in a different way — several S2.2.1 substances are prohibited in males only, which the status column preserves because it changes who the rule applies to, not how strict it is.

Absence is not clearance

This is the most important sentence on the page, so it gets its own heading. A compound missing from these tables has not been cleared by anyone. It may be prohibited under a class definition that no page here has occasion to quote; it may be an unapproved substance and therefore caught by S0 regardless; it may simply be a compound this catalog has not documented. Of the 105 catalog compounds, 47 record an anti-doping position of some kind and 38 name a category — the rest say nothing, and nothing is what that means.

Nor is the reverse safe. A compound sold as a cosmetic, a “research chemical”, or a wellness supplement is not outside the Code by virtue of how it is marketed; athletes have been sanctioned for substances bought exactly that way, in cases decided on admitted use with no positive test. Contaminated or mislabelled product is treated the same way, because strict liability puts what is in the athlete’s body on the athlete.

The list is also revised annually and takes effect on 1 January, so classifications move — and second-hand summaries of it, including widely repeated ones, go stale or were wrong to begin with. The classifications reproduced here were checked against the official 2026 edition, which is the only reason they are stated at all. If you compete, the only answer that protects you is the one from your own anti-doping organisation about the specific product, in the current year — consult the official WADA Prohibited List and ask them directly. This page is educational reference material and is not a compliance tool; see the medical disclaimer.