Most side-effect pages on this site are about a molecule. The best-documented harm from glutathione injections in the United States is about something else: what was in the powder.
The contamination record
27 August 2026. FDA posted an alert stating it was "aware of reports of at least 30 patients who experienced adverse events following the administration of intravenous (IV) glutathione alone or in combination with other ingredients." The glutathione had been compounded by different pharmacies, all from one lot — #229536 — supplied by Medisca Inc. and "labeled as dietary supplement grade, which is not an appropriate ingredient to make injectable drugs."
The reported events: fever, chills, pain, dizziness, signs of shock and sepsis-like symptoms, some leading to hospitalisation. FDA said these were consistent with excessive endotoxin exposure, which can also cause muscle pain, headache, nausea, vomiting, low blood pressure and death, while noting that not all of those had been reported in these cases. It named two Texas pharmacies that had recalled glutathione injectables over elevated endotoxin and said it was continuing to receive reports.
5 August 2026. One of those recalls, posted by FDA as a company announcement: Victory Medical Center Pharmacy in Austin recalled three lots of compounded glutathione 200 mg/mL multi-dose vials after its own testing found elevated bacterial endotoxin. It had received reports of fever, chills, severe headache, nausea, vomiting, tachycardia, changes in blood pressure, body aches and injection-site reactions. The vials had gone directly to consumers in Texas, Florida and New York.
2019. FDA's 2026 alert says the agency "previously communicated in 2019 about the use of dietary ingredient glutathione for compounding injectable drugs and the agency remains concerned about continued risks to patients." Seven years separate two alerts about the same failure.
Endotoxin is not an infection. It is a component of bacterial cell walls that survives sterilisation; a sterile vial can still carry enough of it to cause a fever reaction. That is why the source grade of an ingredient matters for an injection in a way it does not for a capsule, and why FDA's alert tells compounders that "ingredients labeled for dietary supplement use may contain impurities and contaminants, including endotoxins." How a certificate of analysis does and does not show endotoxin is covered on our guide to reading a COA.
The molecule's own record
There is no approved glutathione injection in the US, so no label lists adverse reactions. What exists:
| Source | Population | What was recorded |
|---|---|---|
| FDA compounding review, 8 June 2022 | Spontaneous reports, intravenous route | Two anaphylaxis reports (one recurred on rechallenge); liver enzymes at 22–26 times normal; infusion reactions and hypersensitivity |
| Hauser 2009, Mov Disord (PMID 19230029) | 21 people with Parkinson's disease, 1,400 mg IV three times a week for 4 weeks | No withdrawals for adverse events; adverse events similar to placebo |
| NCT02311907, completed 2012 | 195 people having paclitaxel–carboplatin chemotherapy, glutathione IV over 15 minutes before each cycle | Serious adverse events 7 of 94 (glutathione) vs 1 of 91 (placebo), including 3 thromboembolic events vs 0 |
Neither trial was designed or powered to find a harm, and the chemotherapy trial's serious events occurred in patients receiving two drugs known for their own toxicity; the registry entry records them without attributing them. They are reported here because they are the only placebo-controlled human safety figures for injected glutathione this site found among the 33 ClinicalTrials.gov records matching "glutathione" that have posted results (271 records in all, many of them about precursors or unrelated enzymes), read on 3 October 2026. The 2022 review and the 8–5 committee vote that followed it are covered on our glutathione dosage page.
Why 2,110 adverse-event reports say less than they seem to
openFDA returned 2,110 reports naming glutathione on 3 October 2026 (dataset updated 30 July 2026). We downloaded all of them and read glutathione's coded role in each:
| Glutathione's role in the report | Reports |
|---|---|
| Concomitant only — another drug is the suspect | 1,944 (92%) |
| One of the suspects | 166 |
| The only suspect | 20 |
The country field explains much of it: 845 reports came from China, where glutathione is given in hospitals alongside chemotherapy and liver medicines, which is why platelet decreases, abnormal liver function and anaemia sit among the most frequent reactions across all 2,110 — the signature of the other drugs. Among the 20 sole-suspect reports, the most frequent coded reactions were dizziness (8), shortness of breath (3) and headache (3). Seven of the twelve US sole-suspect reports were received on one day, 16 June 2020, each coding one symptom — a cluster that looks like one source rather than seven independent signals.
Two limits apply. FAERS counts reports, not people or rates, and compounded products are under-reported because 503A pharmacies generally do not report adverse events to FDA. And the August 2026 endotoxin cases post-date the public dataset, so the period in which the most patients are known to have been harmed is not yet in it.
What is not established
No study has measured how often injected glutathione causes any reaction at the doses sold on drip menus. No study has tested repeated injections of the gram-scale amounts quoted commercially for skin lightening. The skin-lightening evidence itself, which FDA's reviewers summarised as minimal and contradictory, is covered on PeptideGlowJournal's glutathione for skin page. What the molecule is is in Peptide Lexicon's glutathione entry.
Reading this record
The safety question for a glutathione injection has two layers, and the documented harm sits in the first: what grade of powder was compounded and whether the finished vial was tested for endotoxin. The second layer, the molecule, has rare but serious spontaneous reports and too few controlled patients to put a number on anything. Anyone who develops fever, chills, a racing heart or faintness after an injection should be assessed by a clinician, with the pharmacy name and lot number to hand. Why low report counts for compounded products mean little, and how this record compares with other peptides', is on our peptide side-effects overview; the drip menus that sell glutathione beside NAD+ are discussed on our NAD injection side-effects page.
Sources and dates
- FDA. "FDA reminds compounders not to use dietary supplement grade glutathione for injectables," content current as of 2026-08-27, read 2026-10-03.
- Victory Medical Center Pharmacy company announcement, "Voluntary Nationwide Recall of Certain Lots of Compounded Glutathione 200 mg/mL Multi-Dose Vials Due to Elevated Endotoxin Levels," FDA publish date 2026-08-05, read 2026-10-03.
- openFDA drug adverse-event endpoint, medicinal product "GLUTATHIONE", all 2,110 reports downloaded and classified by the glutathione entry's drug characterisation, dataset updated 2026-07-30, read 2026-10-03.
- ClinicalTrials.gov v2 API: intervention "glutathione" (271 records; 33 with results) and NCT02311907 results section (adverse events), read 2026-10-03.
- Hauser RA et al. Randomized, double-blind, pilot evaluation of intravenous glutathione in Parkinson's disease. Mov Disord 2009;24(7):979–83 (PMID 19230029), abstract read 2026-10-03.
- FDA Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee, 8 June 2022, glutathione review and vote, as read for this site's glutathione dosage page (2026-09-18).
Corrections go to the contact page.