Peptide Vendor Scam Alerts

Federal authorities (FDA, coordinated with DOJ) physically raided Amino Asylum's Texas warehouse around June 18, 2025. Payment processing was cut and the website taken down immediately after, with no exit process established for customers or pending orders. The site has stayed dark since. The FDA had escalated enforcement across the research-chemical industry through 2024-2025, including warning letters to multiple vendors (Prime Peptides, Xcel Peptides, SwissChems, Summit Research in December 2024); the Amino Asylum raid marked a shift from administrative warnings to physical enforcement. Reported causes included ignoring prior FDA warning letters, marketing products for human consumption, selling prescription-only medications alongside peptides/SARMs, and using trademarked pharmaceutical brand names in marketing. In December 2025, founders Matthew Kawa and Jennifer Stechkober pleaded guilty to federal charges tied to SARMs products that were found to actually contain testosterone (a controlled substance). The same defendants and case were later associated with Kawa's earlier venture, Paradigm Peptides.

Known for: A Texas-based vendor known for aggressive pricing and a very wide catalog spanning peptides, SARMs, and nootropics; reportedly one of the top five most-searched peptide vendors in the US prior to the raid, with 400,000+ monthly site visitors.

Paradigm Peptides (operated by Matthew Kawa via 'Paradigm R.E. LLC' out of Michigan City, Indiana, with sister Jennifer Stechkober as an employee) shut down in March 2024 amid a federal investigation. Prosecutors alleged the business sold SARMs, hCG, and peptides as unapproved new drugs, falsely claimed FDA licensing/registration, falsely claimed US-lab manufacturing and quality testing when products were actually imported without testing from China, India, and elsewhere, and continued selling despite FDA warning letters in 2020 and 2022. From 2019-2024 the business reportedly sold to 54,000+ customers in all 50 states and 80+ countries, generating $5M in proceeds; some customers who ingested testosterone mislabeled as SARMs reported serious health effects. On December 10, 2025, Kawa and Stechkober pleaded guilty (United States v. Matthew Kawa, ND Indiana). Kawa was sentenced to nearly six years (70 months) in prison; Stechkober received 16 months.

Known for: Marketed itself as 'made in America' with 99% purity and third-party lab testing while prosecutors say it was actually importing untested products from Asia; now a cautionary case study cited across the industry (and referenced in the DOJ's Northern District of Indiana press release) for false US-manufacturing and false lab-testing claims by a peptide/SARMs vendor.

Long considered the largest US research peptide vendor, Peptide Sciences (Henderson, NV) voluntarily shut down without advance warning. On the day of closure, visitors to peptidesciences.com found only a brief statement announcing the company had decided to 'voluntarily shut down operations and discontinue the sale of our research products,' with no detail on outstanding orders or refunds. The closure followed 18 months of escalating federal enforcement across the research-peptide industry: a June 2025 FDA warehouse raid on a competitor, 50+ FDA warning letters industry-wide by September 2025, the proposed SAFE Drugs Act targeting research-chemical analogs of FDA-approved drugs, and an HHS announcement moving ~14 of 19 restricted peptides back to Category 1 (prescription-only via compounding pharmacies). Any site currently using the Peptide Sciences name/branding is confirmed fraudulent.

Known for: The largest and longest-running US research peptide vendor by revenue (an estimated $7.4M in online sales in December 2025 alone per Grips Intelligence), broad catalog, and being a default recommendation across the research-peptide community for over a decade before its abrupt shutdown.

Science.bio, a well-regarded US supplier of research compounds, nootropics, and peptides, announced a voluntary, permanent closure with no advance warning, stating on its site: 'After careful consideration, Science.bio has made the decision to permanently close and discontinue the sale of research products.' Unlike Amino Asylum or Paradigm Peptides, Science.bio was not raided or criminally charged. The company chose to exit ahead of enforcement. It committed to fulfilling or fully refunding all outstanding orders. The closure was attributed to a convergence of pressures: 50+ FDA warning letters industry-wide (September 2025), physical raids on competitors (Amino Asylum, June 2025), criminal prosecutions (Paradigm Peptides, December 2025), payment processors increasingly restricting research-compound sales, ITC-driven import blocks on tirzepatide, and the proposed SAFE Drugs Act. The company warned that any site claiming to be a Science.bio successor is fraudulent, with no relaunch planned.

Known for: A well-regarded US supplier of research chemicals, nootropics, SARMs, and peptides known for a broad catalog and a relatively clean reputation prior to its voluntary closure: one of at least eight major vendors (alongside Peptide Sciences, Amino Asylum, Paradigm Peptides, Royal Research, and others) to exit the market in the ~9 months surrounding this closure.

The FDA reviewed primepeptides.co and issued a warning letter (MARCS-CMS 695156) stating that products sold on the site under the names "Semaglutide" and "Retatrutide" are unapproved new drugs under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The letter states that despite "research purposes only" labeling, evidence from the website established the products are intended for human use. This letter was one of four issued the same day to separate companies (Prime Peptides, Xcel Peptides, SwissChems, and Summit Research) over GLP-1-class marketing.

The FDA reviewed pinnaclepeptides.com and issued a warning letter (MARCS-CMS 719337) over the sale of SARM-labeled products, including items marketed as "SARM'S S4 ANDARINE," "LGD-4033," and "MK-2866," which the letter states are unapproved new drugs. The letter separately flags safety concerns tied to SARM-containing products, including reported liver toxicity and increased cardiovascular risk in people who have taken them.

The FDA issued Warning Letter MARCS-CMS 695663 citing SwissChems' Semaglutide and Retatrutide product pages and related social media posts as marketing unapproved new drugs for human use. As of our most recent check, no FDA close-out letter had been published. We review SwissChems separately (status: caution) and cover this letter, plus mid-2026 reports of order and support disruption, in that full review.