Analysis

Picked for the recovery-and-tendon shelf when budget matters. The full TB-4 protein has small-trial data; the synthetic fragment that ships as TB-500 does not.

TB-500 is the budget pick for tendon and connective-tissue work because the underlying biology, G-actin sequestration, cell migration, modulation of inflammatory cytokines, is well-established cell biology, not a marketing back-fit. The complication is that almost every online source treats 'TB-500' and 'thymosin beta-4' as interchangeable, and they are not. TB-4 is the full 43-residue protein with published Phase 1 and Phase 2 data in corneal injury and dermal wound healing. TB-500 is a synthetic short-fragment derivative that ships through research-peptide channels with very little of its own clinical literature. We score the file under TB-500 the marketed compound, not TB-4 the protein, which is why the human-data column reads 3.2 and not 6.5. WADA has prohibited TB-500 by name since 2014 and athletes have been sanctioned, which v1.2 captures in the regulatory posture column.