Is Cartalax legal in the United Kingdom?

A three amino acid peptide studied almost entirely in cell culture by the group that developed it. The only human claim is a sentence in a 2023 review saying it was given orally to older osteoarthritis patients; no primary report of that human use has been located.

Cartalax is Ala-Glu-Asp, written AED, one of a family of ultrashort peptides designed at the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology and assigned to cartilage.

Mechanism: Proposed as epigenetic regulation by an ultrashort peptide that enters the cell and interacts with DNA and histones to shift transcription. In chondrocyte work AED is reported to normalise a senescence pattern characterised by raised p16, p21, p53, TNF-alpha and IL-1-alpha and lowered Sirt1.

Regulatory history: Not approved for any indication in the United States and not evaluated by the FDA. Sold as a supplement or a research chemical depending on the vendor.

Licenses medicines for the UK market. A compound without a marketing authorisation is an unlicensed medicine, which can only lawfully be supplied for human use through a prescriber under the specials scheme, not sold as a research product.

The classification above is the The Longevity Archive reading of Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency listings for Cartalax 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.