Is GIP legal in the United Kingdom?

GIP is one of two gut hormones that tell your pancreas to release insulin after a meal. It is the G in tirzepatide and the other drugs that hit two or three hormone targets. In people, drugs that switch its receptor on and drugs that block it have both caused weight loss. Nobody has explained why.

GIP is a hormone your gut makes when you eat. It comes from cells in the upper small intestine.

How it works: GIP docks on its own receptor. In the insulin-making cells of the pancreas, that boosts insulin release when blood sugar is high.

Approval history: Not an approved drug, and not used as a treatment. Drugs that work on its receptor are approved, including tirzepatide.

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 GIP 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 GIP 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 GIP 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.