Peptides in Guyana: a legal and evidence guide for physicians

Who this guide is for

This guide is for the Guyanese physician who wants the facts before answering a patient's question about peptides. Peptides are not a passing fad: they are one of the most successful drug classes in modern medicine¹. But in Guyana the conversation often starts somewhere else: with an unregistered injection pen, a purchase at a private pharmacy or a product brought in by suitcase traders¹¹¹². Below we summarize what the trials show, what the laws of Guyana say, what the regulator has warned, and where the evidence is thin.

A proven drug class

Since insulin, more than 80 peptide drugs have reached the market for diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, HIV infection and chronic pain¹. The GLP-1 receptor agonists are the best known today. In the randomized SELECT trial of 17,604 adults with established cardiovascular disease and overweight or obesity but no diabetes, semaglutide reduced the composite of cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction or nonfatal stroke from 8.0 % to 6.5 % (hazard ratio 0.80)². In STEP 1, 1,961 adults with obesity lost a mean 14.9 % of body weight at 68 weeks with semaglutide versus 2.4 % with placebo³. In SURMOUNT-1, 2,539 adults lost up to 20.9 % at 72 weeks on the highest tirzepatide dose versus 3.1 % on placebo⁴. In December 2025 the World Health Organization issued its first guideline on GLP-1 therapies for obesity, with conditional recommendations for long-term use in adults¹⁸.

What the law of Guyana says

Three statutes do most of the work. The Food and Drugs Act, Chapter 34:03 (Act 12 of 1971) governs the drug itself; the Pharmacy Practitioners Act, Chapter 32:07 (Act 9 of 2003) governs who dispenses it; and the Medical Practitioners Act, Chapter 32:02 governs the doctor⁵⁷⁸. The Food and Drugs Act and Pharmacy Practitioners Act provisions below are quoted from the revised texts of the Laws of Guyana.

• What counts as a drug. Section 2 defines a drug as any substance or mixture "manufactured, sold or represented for use in" diagnosing, treating, mitigating or preventing a disease or abnormal state, or in "restoring, correcting or modifying organic functions in man or animal". The label a seller chooses does not decide it; the use it is sold or represented for does. "Sell" includes offering, exposing, possessing for sale and distributing⁵.
• Advertising cures. Under section 4, unless regulations allow it, advertising any food, drug, cosmetic or device to the general public as a treatment, preventive or cure for a condition in the First Schedule is an offence, and so is selling one represented that way. The Schedule lists, among others, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, sexual impotence, depression and arthritis⁵.
• Misleading labels and adulterated drugs. Section 10 makes it an offence to label, package, sell or advertise a drug in a manner that is false, misleading or deceptive about its character, value, quantity, composition, merit or safety; section 9 covers drugs that are adulterated, stale or made under insanitary conditions⁵.
• Imports. Section 22 lets an inspector examine and sample drugs at customs and keep them from the importer until the analyst reports; a drug whose sale would break the Act "shall not be admitted in Guyana". Section 32(2) requires imported drugs to conform to the law of the country of manufacture and to carry a certificate to that effect⁵.
• Registration. The GA-FDD states that, under the 1971 Act and its 1977 Regulations, all drugs must be registered with it before they can be legally sold, with directions for use in English⁶. Marketing authorisation applications and drug import permits can now be filed through the national Electronic Single Window¹⁴.
• Inspectors. Section 21 allows inspectors to enter premises, take samples, copy records and seize articles; obstructing them is itself an offence⁵.
• Pharmacists. Under section 20 of the Pharmacy Practitioners Act, a pharmacist who commits professional misconduct, "including the dispensing of prescribed pharmaceuticals without the prescription" of a registered medical practitioner, faces disciplinary proceedings; only practising pharmacists may hold themselves out as qualified to practise pharmacy (section 19(4))⁷.
• Doctors. The Medical Council of Guyana keeps the register. In May 2024 it removed one doctor from the register under section 17(3)(c) of the Medical Practitioners Act and suspended another for four months after malpractice findings⁸.

Penalties

Section 33 of the Food and Drugs Act, in the 1998 revised text, sets a first summary conviction at a fine of G$6,500 to G$32,500 and one to three months in prison, a repeat offence at G$32,500 to G$65,000 and three to six months, and conviction on indictment at G$65,000 to G$325,000 and one to three years⁵. When a company offends, its directors and officers concerned in its management are guilty too unless they show due diligence (section 27), and an inspector may prosecute personally (section 35)⁵. Reform is under way: the GA-FDD is developing a new Medicines Regulation Bill, which the Attorney General listed on the government's 2026 legislative agenda, and with technical support from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Guyana is establishing a national pharmacovigilance centre, with the system housed at the GA-FDD⁹¹⁰.

Recent cases in Guyana

• Unregistered drugs seized (May 2022). The GA-FDD removed foreign-labelled, unregistered drugs from several Georgetown pharmacies and a private hospital, 84 boxes and 526 tablets at the time of the report⁶.
• Fake semaglutide alert (June 2024). The GA-FDD warned that falsified batches of the semaglutide pen Ozempic, first detected in Brazil, the United Kingdom and the United States, "may possibly be on the local market", and repeated that the product was not registered in Guyana¹¹¹⁹.
• "Outpacing regulations" (April 2026). President Irfaan Ali said off-label cosmetic use of tirzepatide (Mounjaro) is straining supply and oversight, and signalled stricter prescription-only enforcement¹².
• A generic semaglutide dossier (May 2026). Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony said a manufacturer had applied to register a generic version of the semaglutide drug Ozempic, that the GA-FDD was processing the dossier, and that "This is not a non-prescription item; you have to get a prescription"¹³.

The evidence map

Not everything sold as a "peptide" stands on the same ground. GLP-1 receptor agonists have large phase 3 trials, including one with hard cardiovascular outcomes²³⁴. At the other end, a 2025 systematic review of BPC-157 found 35 preclinical studies and a single clinical study, a retrospective series in which 7 of 12 patients with chronic knee pain reported relief for more than six months after an intra-articular injection; it found no clinical safety data¹⁵. Many other products marketed as peptides sit closer to BPC-157 than to semaglutide.

How safe are they?

Approved peptides have well-described safety profiles. In SELECT, adverse events led 16.6 % of semaglutide patients and 8.2 % of placebo patients to stop treatment²; in STEP 1, gastrointestinal events were the most common³. In March 2026 PAHO said several countries had reported adverse events linked to these medicines amid rising reports of misuse, including rare but serious acute pancreatitis, gallbladder disease and intestinal obstruction, and warned that products sold through the internet and social media may be falsified or substandard¹⁶. For investigational peptides, the main problem is the lack of human data rather than a proven harm signal¹⁵. Documented serious events are few: at an anti-aging festival in Las Vegas, two women became critically ill and were intubated after peptide injections; both recovered, Nevada's pharmacy board could not determine the cause, and it fined the providers $35,000 in total¹⁷.

What it means for practice

Patients will arrive with these questions, or with these products. Three points follow from the texts above. First, a product's legal status in Guyana depends on how it is sold or represented and whether the GA-FDD has registered it, not on what its label calls it⁵⁶. Second, the pharmacist's duty to dispense against a prescription makes the physician's prescription the gatekeeper⁷. Third, adverse events are worth reporting: the new pharmacovigilance system is designed to collect them⁹. The physician who knows both the evidence and the law becomes the patient's reference; if patients do not find that in the clinic, they will look for it on social media.