Is Apelin legal in the United Kingdom?

Apelin is a natural signal that widens arteries and makes the heart pump harder. That was shown with short drips in about 50 people, including 18 with heart failure. In failing hearts it still worked when a standard test drug did not. The claim that it reverses muscle loss with age comes from mice. Three finished human studies of apelin never posted their results.

Apelin is a family of small signals cut from one larger protein. The versions are apelin-36, apelin-31, apelin-28 and apelin-13.

How it works: In people, given by drip: apelin widens arteries through nitric oxide. Blocking nitric oxide weakens the effect, and aspirin does not.

Approval history: Not FDA-approved. No apelin peptide, and no drug that switches on its receptor (APJ), is approved anywhere. CLR325, a Novartis drug that switches on APJ, finished a mid-stage safety study in 26 patients with heart failure in 2019. Natural apelin has only been given to people in short, one-off studies of how the body works.

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 Apelin 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 Apelin 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 Apelin 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.