KPV
Tripeptide, fragment of alpha-MSH · No brand name. Sometimes written Lys-Pro-Val
- UK status
- Unlicensed medicine
- Availability
- Research use only
- Evidence base
- No human trials
- Controlled drug
- No
Peptide sequence, one-letter notation
KPV
The short version
What it does
Sold for inflammation, gut conditions like colitis, and skin and wound healing.
How it does it
Your body makes a hormone that, among other jobs, calms inflammation. This is the last three building blocks of that hormone, on the theory that the calming part survives on its own without the rest.
The catch
It is three amino acids long, which is about as small as a peptide gets, and the FDA's reviewers found no human clinical studies at all. It also passed their advisory committee anyway, on an 8 to 6 vote.
Everything below goes into the detail, with sources.
KPV is the shortest compound in this register: three amino acids. It is the tail end of a hormone your body already uses to damp down inflammation, and the idea is that the tail does the job without the rest of the molecule.
01What it is
Alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone, alpha-MSH, is best known for pigmentation, which is what melanotan II copies. It has a second, less famous job: it damps down inflammation.
KPV is the final three amino acids of that hormone, lysine, proline and valine. Laboratory work suggests this fragment retains the anti-inflammatory activity while losing the pigmentation effect, which would make it a much cleaner thing to study than the whole hormone.
02How it came about
Interest in KPV goes back to work on alpha-MSH fragments and inflammation from the 1990s onwards, with laboratory and animal studies on colitis and wound healing. It has been used in compounding pharmacies, often orally or topically, for inflammatory bowel conditions and skin.
It came before the FDA's Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee in July 2026 nominated for wound healing and inflammatory conditions, and passed 8 to 6 with one abstention, against the recommendation of the agency's own reviewers.
03UK legal and licensing status
No MHRA authorisation. Supplying it for human use in the UK without one is prohibited. Not a controlled drug. Sold as a research chemical labelled not for human consumption.
The July 2026 committee recommendation concerns US compounding only, is not approval, needs rulemaking that typically takes 8 to 12 months, and has no bearing on UK law.
04How it works
The proposed mechanism is interference with inflammatory signalling inside cells, specifically pathways involving NF-kB, which is one of the main switches controlling inflammatory gene expression. Laboratory and animal work supports the mechanism.
Because it is so small, KPV is of interest for oral and topical use, where larger peptides struggle to get anywhere useful.
05What it is not
Claims that attach themselves to this compound and do not hold up.
- Not a tested treatment for colitis or any other condition. The FDA found no human clinical studies at all.
- Not melanotan. Same parent hormone, different fragment, no pigmentation effect claimed.
- Not approved by the FDA. A compounding recommendation is not an approval, in the US or anywhere.
06What the evidence shows
There is a reasonable laboratory and animal literature on inflammation and wound healing, and enough of it that some observers rated KPV among the better-supported compounds on the July docket.
The FDA's review found no human clinical studies for KPV. Being one of the stronger candidates in a field where several have no human data at all is a low bar, and it is worth being precise about which bar has been cleared.
The FDA also stated it lacks important information about whether KPV would cause harm when administered to humans.
All human effect and safety data. There is also no accepted chemical definition problem flagged generally across this group, which makes basic identity and comparability between products unclear.
07Reported harms
No regulated frequency table exists. The FDA raised immunogenicity, peptide-related impurities and product characterisation as concerns, alongside limited safety information.
Standard unregulated supply risks apply.
08Interactions and cautions
Unknown. For anyone with an inflammatory bowel condition this matters particularly, because there are licensed treatments with established evidence, and substituting an untested compound for one of those is a decision worth taking to a gastroenterologist rather than a forum.
09Stopping
Undocumented.
10Monitoring
Nothing formal. For an inflammatory bowel condition, the markers a gastroenterologist would track exist and are well established, which is an argument for having one involved.
11Questions worth asking
Take these to a doctor or pharmacist. A good clinician will not mind being asked, and the answers are specific to you in a way nothing on this page can be.
- There are licensed treatments for inflammatory bowel disease. Why this instead?
- Given no human studies exist, what would change my mind either way?
- If I have a diagnosed condition, does my specialist know I am considering this?
12Common questions
Is KPV safe?
Unknown. The FDA has stated it lacks important information about whether KPV would cause harm in humans. No systematic safety monitoring exists, so an absence of reported problems reflects an absence of anyone looking.
Did the FDA approve KPV?
No. Its advisory committee voted 8 to 6 to recommend it for a list of substances US compounding pharmacies may prepare. That is not approval and does not mean it has been shown to work.
Can KPV be taken orally?
It is small enough that oral and topical routes are of genuine research interest, unlike most peptides. Whether it works by any route in humans has not been established.
13Sources
Links go to the authoritative source. Where a document sits behind a paywall or moves around, the full citation is given so you can find it yourself.
- Bulk drug substances review, KPVFDA
- PCAC July 2026 meeting materialsFDA
- KPV and intestinal inflammation literaturePubMed
- Unlicensed medicines guidanceMHRA
14Change history
Every substantive change to this record is logged here with its date. Corrections are made openly, not quietly.
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