VIP Peptide
Found in pig intestine in 1970, then it kept turning up everywhere else: lungs, brain, pancreas, immune cells. Its 461-patient phase 3 stopped for futility, which is a specific word with a specific meaning.
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For research use only. Not for human or veterinary use.
What VIP Peptide is
The plain-language version, first.
VIP, or vasoactive intestinal peptide, is a 28 amino acid signalling peptide that acts on the VPAC1 and VPAC2 receptors and is cleared from circulation with a half-life of roughly two minutes. Its synthetic form aviptadil has carried orphan designations since 2003 without producing a marketed systemic medicine, its phase 3 result came back flat, and the only approved product containing it is a locally injected urology combination.
Naming a molecule after where you found it is risky, because molecules move. Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide was isolated from pig intestine in 1970.
Then it turned up in the lungs. The brain, the pancreas, immune cells.
The list kept going. > It is less an intestinal peptide than a general-purpose signal the intestine happened to be caught holding. Twenty-eight residues, working through two receptors spread across half the body's tissues.
That spread is the whole character of this molecule: genuinely important, and genuinely everywhere. _Which sounds like an asset right up until you try to aim it._
What is VIP peptide?
Mechanism studied, not outcome promised.
Class B G-protein coupled receptors signalling through cyclic AMP. Smooth muscle relaxation, secretion, and a broad anti-inflammatory profile in lung tissue.
The plasma half-life. It is why every serious trial used a continuous infusion pump, a nebuliser, or direct injection into the target tissue.
Here's the problem with signals the body uses everywhere. A molecule that relaxes airway muscle also does things to blood vessels, gut, immune cells and neurons, because those tissues all read the same channel. > Using VIP is less like pressing a button and more like making an announcement over the building's PA system.
Every tissue with the receptor hears it. The interesting research question was always whether you could get the announcement to only the department you meant.
Add the standard peptide problem, a half-life measured in minutes, and the delivery challenge stacks on top of the targeting one. Here's the honest part.
Physiological importance and pharmaceutical usefulness are cousins, not twins. _This molecule is unambiguously the first. The 461-patient trial in the next section is what happened when somebody tested the second._
The research so far for VIP Peptide
Where the evidence is thin, we say so.
One combination product in urology, given by local injection, accepted for restricted second-line use by the Scottish Medicines Consortium in December 2017.
Acute lung injury, sarcoidosis and pulmonary arterial hypertension. Three EMA orphan designations from 2003, 2006 and 2007, none converted into a marketing authorisation.
TESICO was NIH-sponsored, placebo-controlled, 461 analysable patients, and produced an odds ratio of 1.11 with a confidence interval straddling 1 and a p value of 0.54. The data safety monitoring board stopped it for futility on 25 May 2022. FDA had already declined an emergency use authorisation in November 2021 and declined a second, narrower request in June 2022.
One number carries this file: 461. That is the patient count of the phase 3 trial of a VIP-based drug candidate that was stopped for futility, which is trial language for the data showing the answer would be no, so continuing was pointless. > Futility is not scandal. It is the system working: a real hypothesis, tested properly, answered clearly. A futility stop is arguably more informative than most positive small studies, because it had the statistical power to mean something. Basic VIP biology remains foundational and widely cited. The drug-development thread ended where the data ended it. _A genuinely important molecule whose big test came back negative. Both halves belong on the page, and most pages selling it only carry the first._
Have a look at current stock and vial sizes.
VIP Peptide specs
The chemistry, exactly as released.
Who studies VIP Peptide
Who tends to order this one, and why.
A research compound does not have one audience. It has a handful of rooms where the same question keeps coming up, and the question is a different question in each of them.
Pulmonary medicine
Acute lung injury and ARDS were the lead indications for two decades. The definitive trial in COVID-19 respiratory failure was negative.
Urology
The only branch that produced an approved product, because direct local injection sidesteps the two-minute half-life entirely.
Neuroendocrinology
VIP is a widespread neurotransmitter with roles in circadian rhythm and autonomic signalling, well beyond the gut it was named after.
Sarcoidosis researchers
The FDA orphan designation in August 2021 rested on open label exploratory clinical experience rather than a controlled trial.
Sold for laboratory research only. This is not guidance for personal use, and nothing here is a recommendation.
VIP Peptide backstory
How it got here.
Said and Mutt were purifying peptides from pig intestine in 1970 and picked this one out by its ability to dilate blood vessels. That is where the name comes from: vasoactive, intestinal, peptide.
It turned out to be far more widely distributed than the gut, appearing throughout the nervous system and the lung. The therapeutic story splits in two.
One branch went into rare lung disease, sponsored largely by mondoBIOTECH in Liechtenstein, and produced three EMA orphan designations between 2003 and 2007 and no medicines. The other branch went into urology, where local injection sidesteps the half-life problem entirely, and produced the only approved product.
The COVID programme, run under the name ZYESAMI, was the largest and best-funded attempt at the first branch. It ended in 2022 with a futile phase 3 and two declined authorisations.
- 1
Pig intestine, 1970
Said and Mutt isolated it by its vasodilator activity and published in Science. It turned out to be distributed far beyond the gut, through the nervous system and lung.
- 2
Orphan designations, 2003 to 2007
Three from EMA for pulmonary hypertension, acute lung injury and sarcoidosis, all sponsored by mondoBIOTECH. None produced a medicine.
- 3
The COVID programme ends
Inhaled trial terminated, two FDA emergency authorisations declined, and a 461-patient phase 3 stopped for futility in May 2022.
Buying VIP Peptide in Canada
What ships, how fast, and the paperwork.
The hard part of buying research material is almost never the compound. It is the logistics. What leaves the building, how fast it moves, and what is in the box beside the vial. Here is ours, plainly.
Same day out of British Columbia
Our building, our cold packs, our people, and nothing sitting in a customs queue while you refresh a tracking page.
Then into the fridge
Keep it cold and keep it dark. Sealed and freeze-dried it handles a rough trip without ice. Once it lands, fridge.
The half-life is the whole story
Two minutes in plasma. Every trial that produced a real result used continuous infusion or direct local injection. That is a fact about the molecule, not a formulation problem waiting to be solved by a vial.
Stuff people ask about VIP Peptide
If your question is not here, email us. Real human answers.
No. TESICO, published in Lancet Respiratory Medicine in 2023, randomised 471 patients with 461 in the analysis. Recovery at day 90 gave an odds ratio of 1.11, confidence interval 0.80 to 1.55, p equals 0.54. Day-90 mortality was 38 percent on aviptadil against 36 percent on placebo. The data safety monitoring board stopped the trial for futility in May 2022.
Yes, one, and it is in urology rather than any of the indications VIP is usually discussed for. The Scottish Medicines Consortium accepted it for restricted second-line use in December 2017. No VIP product is approved for any lung, inflammatory or metabolic indication anywhere in the world.
About two minutes in plasma. This is the single most consequential fact about the compound. It is why every clinical programme has used continuous intravenous infusion, nebulisation, or direct injection into the target tissue rather than intermittent systemic dosing.
No. FDA declined an emergency use authorisation on 4 November 2021, stating it was unable to issue the authorisation due to insufficient data regarding the known and potential benefits and risks, having reviewed safety data in only 131 randomised patients. A second, narrower request focused on critically ill patients was declined in June 2022.
Less than they sound like. EMA granted three: pulmonary arterial hypertension in December 2003, acute lung injury in August 2006, and sarcoidosis in September 2007. An orphan designation is a development incentive granted early, not evidence of efficacy. All three are roughly twenty years old and none has ever led to a marketing authorisation in those indications.
It was isolated in 1970 by Said and Mutt from porcine small intestine and identified by its vasodilator activity, which is where the name comes from. It is a member of the secretin and glucagon superfamily and is now known to be widely distributed through the nervous system and lung, not just the gut.
Good pairing options with VIP Peptide
What researchers stack alongside it.
Pairing is where research gets ahead of itself. These are the compounds researchers put in the same order as VIP Peptide, which is a statement about ordering habits, not about evidence. Two things in one cart have not been studied together unless somebody studied them together.
Everything alive builds its peptides from left-handed amino acids. In 1981 a South American tree frog turned up carrying one with a right-handed piece bolted into position two. The whole human record is a single 150-patient trial from 1985.
Cholera taught researchers how the gut's tight junctions swing open. Larazotide is the counter-move, and its phase 3 stopped for futility in 2022. The whole arc is on this page.
Order VIP Peptide right now
One last look before you decide.
Freeze-dried, COA on the page, ships cold
If you are researching VIP Peptide and you want a source you do not have to second-guess, start with the paperwork on this page. For research use only.
Not for human consumption. Not approved by Health Canada or any other regulatory body.
Page last updated August 20, 2026
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