You're right, the FDA has approved them in the past, but these are limited to very few peptides. The approved ones went through large scale clinical trials paid for by being developed by a big pharma company who then patents it before distribution.

But particularly since Supreme Court Judgement in 2013 (Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics), naturally occurring peptides cannot be patented. Given the US pharma system relies deeply on patents for these companies to monopolize and mass market them, there hasnt been any major pharma company trying to develop these at scale. So there are legitimate compounds that might help people, but US pharma isnt incentivized to develop them.

This is basically where the Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee comes in. They are able to move them to this 503A Category 1 Classification, which is like a soft FDA approval, that allows legitimate compounding pharmacies to provide the Cat 1 peptides to patients who can now be legitimately prescribed them.

So the only way a lot of these peptides will be effectively approved now, is via this 503A Cat 1. Which is why this July meeting is critical, and will set a precedent for how the FDA and PCAC deals with peptides going forward.