Is Mycophenolic acid legal in the United Kingdom?

A transplant immunosuppressant tested on the logic that rapamycin's lifespan effect might come from immune suppression. It did not extend mouse lifespan in either sex, which argues that rapamycin works some other way.

Rapamycin is the most robust pharmacological lifespan extender known in mice, and it is also an immunosuppressant used to prevent transplant rejection. That raises an obvious question: is the lifespan effect a consequence of dampening the immune system, or of inhibiting mTOR?

Mechanism: A reversible inhibitor of inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase, the rate-limiting enzyme in de novo guanosine nucleotide synthesis. T and B lymphocytes depend on the de novo pathway because they lack an effective salvage pathway, so inhibiting it suppresses lymphocyte proliferation with relative selectivity.

Regulatory history: FDA-approved as mycophenolate mofetil and mycophenolate sodium for prophylaxis of organ rejection. Carries boxed warnings for embryofetal toxicity, malignancy and serious infection. No ageing indication.

Licenses medicines for the UK market. A compound without a marketing authorisation is an unlicensed medicine, which can only lawfully be supplied for human use through a prescriber under the specials scheme, not sold as a research product.

The classification above is the The Longevity Archive reading of Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency listings for Mycophenolic acid 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.