Is FGF17 legal in the United Kingdom?

The factor found when young spinal fluid was pumped into the brains of old mice. In people it is known for something else entirely: faults in the FGF17 gene stop puberty from starting.

Nobody has been given FGF17. There is no registered trial.

How it works: In mice, young spinal fluid makes the parent cells of the brain's insulating sheath divide and mature in the ageing memory centre. It does this through a control protein whose levels fall with age in those cells.

Approval history: Not approved, and never given to a person. We could not find a registered study of FGF17 for any use.

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 FGF17 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 FGF17 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 FGF17 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.