This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they’re going to change your life. We’ll be taking a break next week and will be back on November 25th. Opt in for Optimizer here.
The SS Jeremiah O’Brien is a World War II Liberty ship. The hulking vessel was built in 56 days. It made 11 trips to Normandy, France, to supply the Allied powers in the fight against German U-boats. Last week, it was the site of a black-tie peptide party thrown by a trio of Gen Z venture capitalists.
Roughly 150 people attended the event, where four types of peptide samples were provided to guests — no injections. One was a topical cream with GHK-Cu, while the other three were dissolvable sublingual strips from peptide startup Afterglow. GHK-Cu is a popular skincare ingredient, but it’s unclear how well sublingual peptide strips work. The topic of the night wasn’t just the state of peptides. The venue was a deliberate reference to American industrial prowess — and why the pharmaceutical supply chain ought to be centered in the United States.
