Is BNP and nesiritide legal in the United States?

BNP is a heart hormone with two lives. As a blood test, it is the standard way to check for heart failure. As a drug, it failed. In a study of 7,141 people, the drug version, nesiritide, barely helped breathing and did not change deaths or return trips to hospital. The product is now listed as discontinued.

B-type natriuretic peptide, or BNP, is a hormone 32 building blocks long. The heart's main pumping chambers release it when their walls are under strain.

How it works: In people, BNP docks on NPR-A, the same receptor ANP uses. That raises a messenger called cyclic GMP.

Approval history: NATRECOR (nesiritide), NDA 020920, Scios LLC, first approved in 2001 for heart failure that has suddenly got worse. When we checked the FDA drug database (Drugs@FDA) on 11 September 2026, it was listed Discontinued. A Federal Register notice says it was not discontinued or withdrawn because of safety or because it did not work. BNP and NT-proBNP are still used every day as blood tests to help diagnose. That is a lab use, not a drug approval.

Approves prescription drugs, each for a named use. It also acts against unapproved products, including peptides sold online. Compounding pharmacies, which mix drugs to order, may make some compounds with a prescription. That only applies when the FDA puts the compound in a category of bulk ingredients it allows.

The legal category above is how The Longevity Archive reads U.S. Food and Drug Administration listings for BNP and nesiritide on the reviewed date. It is not a legal opinion. Rules change. Bringing a compound into the country, prescribing it and owning it can each be treated differently. Check with the agency before you act on anything here.

Check FDA directly

Whether BNP and nesiritide is banned in sport is set by the World Anti-Doping Code and by military rules, not by its legal status in the United States. Before you compete or get tested, look up BNP and nesiritide by name on the Prohibited List, or look up a named product in Global DRO. Under the World Anti-Doping Code, category S0 bans, at all times, any drug-like substance that meets two tests. No other section of the List covers it. And no government health regulator anywhere has a current approval for it as a treatment in people. Many substances that are approved somewhere are banned by name in another section. So approval does not mean a substance is allowed in sport.

• WADA Prohibited List
• Global DRO (check a named product)
• USADA (US athletes)
• Operation Supplement Safety (US service members)

The rules you compete or serve under decide this, not this page.