Is Dersimelagon legal in the United Kingdom?

A daily pill that switches on MC1R, the skin's tanning receptor. It is a small-molecule cousin of afamelanotide. In January 2026 it passed its final-stage study in erythropoietic protoporphyria, a condition where sunlight causes skin pain.

Dersimelagon switches on the melanocortin-1 receptor, or MC1R. That makes the skin build more protective pigment, without the wider effects of the melanotan-type peptides that hit many receptors.

How it works: It switches on MC1R, which tells skin cells to make more dark pigment, called eumelanin.

Approval history: Investigational; a final-stage study hit its main goal. The FDA gave it Fast Track and Orphan (rare disease) status

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 Dersimelagon 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 Dersimelagon 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 Dersimelagon 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.