Is Albiglutide legal in the United Kingdom?

A once-a-week GLP-1 shot approved in 2014 and pulled from every market by 2018. In the 9,463 person Harmony Outcomes study, it cut heart deaths, heart attacks and strokes by 22 percent compared with a dummy injection. In a head-to-head test, it lowered average blood sugar (HbA1c) less than liraglutide. It is no longer sold anywhere.

Albiglutide is a lab-built protein. It joins two copies of human GLP-1 to human albumin, the main protein in blood.

How it works: Albiglutide switches on the GLP-1 receptor. That boosts insulin when blood sugar is high, holds back glucagon, slows how fast the stomach empties and cuts appetite.

Approval history: FDA approved 15 April 2014 (Tanzeum, BLA 125431) to control blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. Listed as Discontinued in the FDA drug database (Drugs@FDA). The EU approved it as Eperzan in March 2014, and that approval was withdrawn on 29 October 2018 at the company's request.

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 Albiglutide 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 Albiglutide 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 Albiglutide 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.