Person/Company:

AgeForce Phase 4 Pharmaceutical

Stephen Lapidus – CEO at Phase 4 Pharmaceutical

Location:

Products in this review were ordered online: https://www.ageforce.com

21055 N.E. 37th Ave., Suite 2202, Aventura, Florida 33014

PO Box 7346, Delray Beach, FL 33483

(305) 788-6604

When:

January of 2019

What I Bought:

BPC-157 Transdermal Patches

My Rating:

★★

What I Liked:

I liked the positive reviews, and I found plenty of them on various websites and forums… to the point that I began to question their authenticity.

I liked how fast the shipping was. The package came in just a few days.

I like that they have a Product Satisfaction Guarantee – it’s good to try things out for yourself without too much risk.

What I Didn’t Like:

I developed contact dermatitis on the application sites after about two weeks. That wasn’t very fun. Normally, I’m not that sensitive.

While they do have a Product Satisfaction Guarantee, it doesn’t apply to any order that exceeds $200 in value. At the same time, they drop the price dramatically on the bulk items, which makes the larger purchase more appealing and cost-effective.  

Their website throws a LOT of information in your face about what BPC-157 can potentially do, but it doesn’t really detail how a molecule with a weight of somewhere between 900 and 1,600 daltons can pass through the skin that normally only allows molecules with a weight of 500 daltons to get through without help. They would likely grow their business and counter things like in the following link if they did: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10839713

I also didn’t like that they had a warning letter from the FDA… but I don’t trust the FDA anyway, so this was more of a caution than anything: https://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/ucm605283.htm

My Recommendation:

Try it out for yourself, and just don’t buy the larger quantities until you’re sure about its effectiveness. If you do try it, try it for at least 30 days. I would also be reluctant to use this for anything other than intestine, skin, muscle, bone, ligament, or tendon issues, as there isn’t much data to suggest it will work otherwise. That doesn’t mean it won’t work… it just means there isn’t any data to support that it will, and I’m not trying to get anyone to waste their money. Furthermore, it seems that my experiment with it had mixed results, so perhaps different people will get different results depending on what they are using it for. My experience with this product is detailed below.

Important Things to Consider:

Be careful about following the Dalton rule as gospel – because it’s just not. There is a belief that larger molecules cannot pass the corneal layer, but this is really only partially accurate, and this is especially true when heat, sweat, etc., can or do impact or modify the molecule(s) in question. Studies have shown that molecules that are larger than 500 Daltons have indeed penetrated. So it’s important to understand that your skin CAN absorb a lot more than you might know, and they are figuring out all sorts of ways to increase its ability to absorb more as well.

Just as an example, biphasic vesicles—a lipid-based, topical delivery system— have been shown to deliver fairly large-molecule or macromolecule drugs into the skin without a problem, and this has been known for several years now. Biphasic vesicles have an inherent ability to encapsulate a variety of therapeutic substances proportionately, and they are able to deliver drugs transdermally, AND they have been used on patches (not necessarily the patches in question, though). There are also other substances that can do the same, so it’s important to find out about the delivery method if you are concerned about the weight.

I set out to do just that in regard to BPC 157. I wanted to know “how” this company was able to deliver on its claims. I admit; this is a hard concept for many to grasp – evidently for the company as well.

I’m not entirely sure why this company isn’t a bit more transparent about its technology or perhaps why they are not empowering its people with the necessary information to answer such questions. The company admits that BPC 157 is a little over 1400 Daltons. They state that it’s the technological advances in transdermal patches, together with proprietary laboratory procedures to stabilize and prepare BPC-157 for transdermal delivery, that make it work. They “assure successful delivery of the optimum daily dosage of .5 mg per patch over 8-hours” but they don’t really address the “how” or even provide a demonstration of its effectiveness – which is important for people like myself.

So I reached out to the company directly and asked them about the delivery mechanism. I also informed them that two other family members and I were trying out the patches for various reasons. I asked them specifically to address their delivery system. Here is what they wrote to me.

The BPC 157 molecule Dalton weight is about 1,400. That makes it very difficult to deliver via a transdermal patch. That being said, the BPC 157 molecule is a “Linear” molecule (Long, not wide) and as such we can modify it in our laboratory via molecular engineering so that it can be delivered transdermal. We are a large pharmaceutical company specializing in the transdermal time release delivery of supplements, and in the case of BPC 157, peptides. We do not import anything. Every formula we offer is compounded by us or sourced from other United States laboratories. The BPC 157 patch, and all of our other patches, are deliverable and effective. Hope this helps.

Well, it didn’t help. BPC 157 is comprised of 15 amino acids. As far as science is concerned, there is virtually no absorption of peptides longer than four amino acids, and there are no topical medications (so far) that have been shown to be effective at much above 500 Daltons without some kind of help via the use of another compound or special delivery system – as addressed earlier. So I wrote them back for clarification.

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly. I apologize for any bother but I’m not sure that answers the question. I’m actually seeking a somewhat technical response (if that’s possible). Perhaps I wasn’t clear in my question. Allow me to ask it another way and in two parts.

1) Is the expected delivery of the molecule via transepidermal or transappendegeal pathways?

2) Is the delivery mechanism vesicles, some kind of eutectic, chemical enhancer, prodrug or eutectic?

They responded by saying:

Delivery is regular transdermal delivery. The patch is the standard formula in adhesive patch delivery system. The entire formula is delivered over the 8-hour time release function of the patch.

Again… their response didn’t answer the “how.” Perhaps the “how” is their proprietary process, but if this question could be answered a bit more directly, I doubt there would be so many nay-sayers out there. If this is you… don’t let this be the end of your trial, and don’t let it discourage you quite yet.  

Here’s the deal. There are still plenty of mysteries in regard to what does or does not enter our bodies via the skin. Furthermore, we do know that BPC 157 CAN do some amazing things when applied topically.

According to some studies that I found, the “how” seems to be unknown, but its effectiveness has been confirmed. One such study seemed to think that the topical application somehow triggered the natural production of it in the body. This would, of course, benefit the body overall, even if the synthetic stuff wasn’t reaching the blood. I found other theories as well.

In fact, BPC 157 cream not only improved burn-wound healing in mice, but it also reduced the effects of burn-gastric lesions as well (in mice). This helps us see that it had an effect both in and out of the body, and this is important to note, considering that it was being applied topically.

A few other things to consider are that the mice that were treated with topical BPC-157 showed a significantly faster wound closure than those left untreated; the acceleration of wound healing by BPC-157 became remarkably significant on days 12 and 16; BPC-157 is effective in the very low dose range and… studies admit that the underlying mechanism of how this all works has not been made clear yet. Perhaps that is why AgeForce is not able to say how it works… perhaps they really don’t know how; they just believe it does.

You can review a couple of the studies here.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11718984

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4425239/

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jor.21107

My Personal Experience

I tried the patches for a full 90 days. If I were stretching, I would say I saw a little benefit, but I definitely wouldn’t spend the money again. It was a good experiment, but it didn’t do much of anything for me personally. That being said, I was told by my family members that they did see a slight but noticeable benefit but that herbs she has tried in the past worked substantially better.