Is Cortagen legal in the United States?

Cortagen is a four building block peptide from Khavinson's institute in Russia. It is sold as the defined-recipe cousin of Cortexin, for brain recovery. The animal data come from a single St. Petersburg group, and nobody knows how the body absorbs it by any route.

Cortagen belongs to a family of short peptides made by Vladimir Khavinson's institute. Each one is pitched as a regulator for one tissue.

How it works: The claim is that it binds directly to DNA and switches brain cell genes on or off. That is Khavinson's theory, not a proven fact.

Approval history: Not approved

Approves prescription drugs, each for a named use. It also acts against unapproved products, including peptides sold online. Compounding pharmacies, which mix drugs to order, may make some compounds with a prescription. That only applies when the FDA puts the compound in a category of bulk ingredients it allows.

The legal category above is how The Longevity Archive reads U.S. Food and Drug Administration listings for Cortagen 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 FDA directly

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