Is Melanotan I legal in the United Kingdom?

An FDA-approved drug that darkens the skin to protect people with a rare condition that makes sunlight painful.

Melanotan I, also called afamelanotide, was approved by the FDA in 2019 as Scenesse. It is a small implant.

How it works: It switches on the melanocortin-1 receptor in the skin. That makes skin cells produce more eumelanin, the dark pigment that shields skin from light.

Approval history: FDA-approved (Scenesse) for erythropoietic protoporphyria, a rare disease that makes sunlight painful on the skin

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 Melanotan I 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 Melanotan I 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 Melanotan I 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.