February 10, 2026
Your gut is the final boss
A brief history of oral peptides
Stomach vs Pills: 99% Gets Shredded — and the Hims side-eye is loud
TLDR: Scientists hacked a way for semaglutide pills to work a little — about 0.8% survives the stomach — which is both impressive and tiny. Readers cheered the explainer, questioned the “history” framing, and stirred drama over Hims’ legality and safety, proving the real fireworks are in the comments.
The article lays it out like a food-fight: your stomach is a protein shredder, and peptides like semaglutide don’t stand a chance. Enter Novo Nordisk’s SNAC trick, which helps a tiny sliver — about 0.8% — slip through. It’s a scientific flex, but not a miracle cure, and the comments came in hot.
One camp cheered the explainer (“great read!”), while skeptics rolled their eyes at the title. “Is this really the history?” asked one user, pointing out the piece feels more like a spotlight on semaglutide’s pill form than a full timeline. Meanwhile, the thread’s chaos agent dropped a grenade: a jab at Hims investors and whether their weight‑loss pill buzz is even legal — a spicy aside that instantly stole the show. Others urged caution about “dubious formulations,” warning the fallout isn’t just cosmetic; it can mess with your health.
Between the applause and the side-eye, readers begged for context on what Hims even is (a telehealth brand selling buzzy treatments). Jokes flew about 99.2% of the pill getting obliterated — “like my hopes and dreams” — while others marveled that a pill working at all is impressive. Verdict: science is hard, the stomach is savage, and the legal/marketing drama is just getting started.
Key Points
- •Peptide drugs are rapidly degraded in the GI tract, giving typical oral bioavailability below 1–2%, which historically blocked oral peptide therapeutics.
- •Novo Nordisk enabled oral semaglutide using SNAC (salcaprozate sodium), developed by Emisphere and later acquired by Novo for $1.8B in 2020.
- •SNAC works by buffering gastric pH, preventing peptide oligomerization, and transiently fluidizing gastric membranes to permit transcellular uptake.
- •Oral semaglutide achieved ~0.8% bioavailability across extensive clinical testing, highlighting both success and severe efficiency limits.
- •Alternatives like sodium caprate (C10) and sodium caprylate (C8/TPE) exist; C10 enabled IO338 with 1–2% bioavailability but required ~60× dosing, while C8 underpins Chiasma’s TPE used for Mycapssa.