Is OSK Partial Reprogramming legal in the United Kingdom?

Three of the four Yamanaka factors, switched on briefly to reset epigenetic marks without erasing cell identity. Every efficacy result is in mice. One phase 1 safety trial is recruiting, in 18 people, in one eye.

Partial reprogramming is the idea that ageing cells keep a readable record of their younger epigenetic state, and that turning on a subset of the Yamanaka factors for a short period can recover it. OSK is that subset: Oct4, Sox2 and Klf4, with c-Myc deliberately left out because c-Myc is an oncogene.

Mechanism: Established in mice. OSK expression drives partial erasure and rewriting of DNA methylation marks, moving the methylation profile of a cell toward a younger pattern without progressing to pluripotency.

Regulatory history: Not approved in any country for any indication. No reprogramming therapy has ever been approved. One investigational product, Life Biosciences ER-100, is in a recruiting phase 1 safety study (NCT07290244).

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 OSK Partial Reprogramming 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.