Is 25-Hydroxycholesterol legal in Australia?

A cholesterol byproduct your body makes itself. A 2025 study found it made old mice's main artery less stiff, about as much as killing their worn-out cells with genes. Other mouse work points the opposite way in the brain, where the same molecule drives swelling and damage.

25-Hydroxycholesterol is made from cholesterol by an enzyme that immune cells switch on when they fight. It is a signal the body makes, not a drug.

How it works: Shown in mice and cells: 25-hydroxycholesterol is made by an enzyme called cholesterol 25-hydroxylase. It tells cells to make less cholesterol and it changes antiviral and swelling signals.

Approval history: Not approved for any use. The body makes it naturally, and it is sold as a lab chemical. No human study is registered.

Registers or lists medicines and health products on the ARTG, its official register. It also sorts substances into schedules in the Poisons Standard. Many peptides are Schedule 4 (prescription only). So having them without a prescription, or importing them for yourself, is restricted. That is true even when no product is registered.

The legal category above is how The Longevity Archive reads Therapeutic Goods Administration listings for 25-Hydroxycholesterol on the reviewed date. It is not a legal opinion. Rules change. Bringing a compound into the country, prescribing it and owning it can each be treated differently. Check with the agency before you act on anything here.

Check TGA directly

Whether 25-Hydroxycholesterol is banned in sport is set by the World Anti-Doping Code and by military rules, not by its legal status in Australia. Before you compete or get tested, look up 25-Hydroxycholesterol by name on the Prohibited List, or look up a named product in Global DRO. Under the World Anti-Doping Code, category S0 bans, at all times, any drug-like substance that meets two tests. No other section of the List covers it. And no government health regulator anywhere has a current approval for it as a treatment in people. Many substances that are approved somewhere are banned by name in another section. So approval does not mean a substance is allowed in sport.

• WADA Prohibited List
• Global DRO (check a named product)
• USADA (US athletes)
• Operation Supplement Safety (US service members)

The rules you compete or serve under decide this, not this page.