Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has supported broader access to peptides. A new policy will make it easier for small compounding pharmacies to make them. Heather Diehl/Getty Images hide caption

Heather Diehl/Getty Images

Unproven but popular peptides touted for wellness have been available on the gray market, despite an official ban. Now, the Department of Health and Human Services is looking to bring them out of the shadows.

HHS said in a new policy that it will exercise enforcement discretion for a half dozen peptides, essentially looking the other way when they're made by small compounding pharmacies.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been a vocal supporter of peptides , saying he has used some of them himself.

Peptides are strings of amino acids, shorter than proteins, that can exert powerful effects in the body. Some occur naturally and others are synthetic variations.…