Richard Norton died after a peptide injection and a heart attack on March 30, 2025, after taking double the prescribed dose of CJC1295 & Ipamorelin. Coroner David Ryan said the 75-year-old actor and martial artist’s death was triggered by the injection.
On March 11, Norton saw Dr. Jerzy Muchnicki while recovering from shoulder surgery, complained of fatigue and pain, and said he was interested in peptide therapy. He signed a consent form before the treatment began, then reported on March 25 that he was feeling good and the peptide therapy was improving his symptoms.
Judy Green’s March 28 call
On March 28, Norton called Muchnicki’s office after he had dropped and broken a vial of CJC1295 & Ipamorelin and requested a replacement. He told the nurse he was experiencing better sleep, reduced pain and increased exercise capacity with no side effects, and the nurse spoke with Muchnicki before the replacement was authorized.
Later that evening, Judy Green called the office and said Norton had become hot and flushed, then collapsed and became unresponsive after administering a second dose of the peptides. He was rushed to a hospital and died two days later, a timeline that leaves little room between the dose increase and the fatal event.
Coroner David Ryan’s report
Ryan filed the report on Wednesday in the Coroners Court of Victoria and said Norton had been taking amounts of the medication in excess of the dose prescribed by his medical practitioner. That finding gives the death a sharply defined medical and legal frame: the issue was not peptide therapy in the abstract, but the decision to go beyond the prescribed amount.
The case also lands in a wider market for unapproved peptides, which are promoted online for faster healing, younger-looking skin, better sleep and longer life. For anyone using peptide therapy, the practical lesson is plain: the dose on the prescription is the boundary, and Norton’s own sequence of calls, replacement vial and second dose shows how quickly a perceived benefit can turn into a medical emergency. For readers following the broader regulatory picture, the Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee’s peptide vote shows how contested this space remains.
It also sits alongside other peptide enforcement cases, including the Matthew Kawa jail sentence and the 8-6 vote easing peptide restrictions. Norton’s death, however, is the most direct warning sign in this record: he said the treatment was helping, then collapsed after taking more than prescribed.
