Is AICAR legal in the United Kingdom?

AICAR was the first exercise in a pill, from a 2008 mouse paper. It switches on AMPK, and it has been banned in sport since 2009. Human programs in heart surgery and leukemia never produced an approved drug. The doses that worked in animals are far too big to use in people.

Inside cells, AICAR turns into a molecule that switches on AMPK, the cell's fuel sensor. The biggest human trial, in 3,080 heart bypass patients, was stopped early because it did nothing.

How it works: Inside cells it turns into ZMP, which looks like a low-energy signal and switches on AMPK. That turns on genes linked to endurance.

Approval history: Never approved

Licenses medicines for sale in the UK. A compound without a licence to be sold (a marketing authorisation) is an unlicensed medicine. The law only lets it reach people through a prescriber, under the specials scheme (unlicensed medicines made for one patient's needs). It cannot be sold as a research product.

The legal category above is how The Longevity Archive reads Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency listings for AICAR 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 MHRA directly

Whether AICAR is banned in sport is set by the World Anti-Doping Code and by military rules, not by its legal status in the United Kingdom. Before you compete or get tested, look up AICAR 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.