Is Beinaglutide legal in Australia?

The only marketed GLP-1 drug that is the unmodified human hormone, which is why it has to be injected three times a day. Approved in China, and in a 427 person phase 3 it produced 6.0 percent weight loss against 2.4 percent on placebo over 16 weeks.

Every other drug in this class is the human hormone rebuilt to survive in the bloodstream: an amino acid swapped to resist the enzyme that degrades it, a fatty acid chain added to bind albumin, a protein domain fused on to slow clearance. Beinaglutide is none of that.

Mechanism: Recombinant human glucagon-like peptide-1 (7-36) amide, produced in a recombinant system and identical in sequence to the endogenous hormone. It activates the GLP-1 receptor exactly as the native hormone does: glucose-dependent insulin secretion from pancreatic beta cells, glucagon suppression, delayed gastric emptying and reduced food intake through vagal and central pathways.

Regulatory history: Not approved in the United States. Marketed in China for type 2 diabetes, and approved by China's National Medical Products Administration in July 2023 for weight management.

Registers or lists therapeutic goods on the ARTG and schedules substances in the Poisons Standard. Many peptides are Schedule 4 (prescription only), so possession without a prescription and personal importation are restricted even when no product is registered.

The classification above is the The Longevity Archive reading of Therapeutic Goods Administration listings for Beinaglutide at the reviewed date, not a legal opinion. Rules change, and importing, prescribing and possessing a compound can each be treated differently. Check the regulator directly before acting on anything here.