Is Ambroxol legal in Canada?

A cough medicine sold over the counter in much of the world. At high doses it raises a key enzyme in the brain. The one proper test in Parkinson's disease dementia gave 55 people the drug or a dummy pill for 52 weeks. The enzyme went up. But people on the dummy pill did just as well on both main measures.

Ambroxol has been sold for decades to loosen mucus in a cough. Its second life began in 2009.

How it works: Ambroxol acts like a helper for the enzyme glucocerebrosidase. It grabs the enzyme as it is being built, helps it hold its shape, and lets go once it reaches the cell's recycling centre.

Approval history: Not approved in the United States for any use. Widely sold over the counter in Europe, Asia and Latin America to loosen mucus. The Parkinson disease work is investigational everywhere, and it uses doses far above the ones used for mucus.

Allows a drug to be sold by issuing a Notice of Compliance and a Drug Identification Number (DIN). A compound that is not allowed for sale cannot legally be sold for use in people. Bringing in prescription drugs for your own use is also limited.

The legal category above is how The Longevity Archive reads Health Canada, Health Products and Food Branch listings for Ambroxol 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 Health Canada directly

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