Is Halofuginone legal in Australia?

Extended male mouse median lifespan by 8.8 percent in the 2021 Interventions Testing Program cohort, one of the larger single-cohort male effects the programme has reported, with no effect in females. In people it has only ever been given in a 24-patient oncology phase 1 where nausea limited dosing, small topical studies, and a Duchenne programme that was terminated.

Halofuginone is a synthetic derivative of febrifugine, the active alkaloid of the Chinese herb Dichroa febrifuga. It is used as a veterinary antiprotozoal, and in the 2000s it was developed as an oral anti-fibrotic and anti-angiogenic cancer drug under the name tempostatin, then as HT-100 for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Mechanism: Halofuginone binds glutamyl-prolyl-tRNA synthetase and inhibits its prolyl-tRNA synthetase activity, which is reversed by adding proline. That triggers the amino acid starvation response, an arm of the integrated stress response, and in mouse and human T cells in culture it selectively blocks Th17 differentiation.

Regulatory history: Not approved for human use. No halofuginone product appears in the FDA approved drugs database. Oral (tempostatin) and Duchenne (HT-100) programmes did not reach approval; the Duchenne trials are recorded as terminated. Used as a veterinary antiprotozoal. The lifespan result is in male mice.

Registers or lists therapeutic goods on the ARTG and schedules substances in the Poisons Standard. Many peptides are Schedule 4 (prescription only), so possession without a prescription and personal importation are restricted even when no product is registered.

The classification above is the The Longevity Archive reading of Therapeutic Goods Administration listings for Halofuginone 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.