Is Osteocalcin legal in the United Kingdom?

The bone hormone that controlled muscle, glucose and testosterone in mice, until two independent laboratories made new osteocalcin knockout strains in 2020 and found none of those phenotypes. In humans the causal arrow, as far as genetics can resolve it, appears to run the other way.

Osteocalcin is the most abundant non-collagen protein in bone, made by osteoblasts and gamma-carboxylated in a vitamin K dependent step. From the mid-2000s it became something much more interesting: a bone-derived endocrine hormone.

Mechanism: Osteocalcin is a small gamma-carboxylated peptide secreted by osteoblasts. Its established function is structural: it aligns apatite crystallites parallel to collagen fibrils, and without it bone strength falls even though bone quantity is normal.

Regulatory history: Not a drug. Osteocalcin is an endogenous protein measured as a bone turnover marker in clinical laboratories. No osteocalcin product is approved anywhere and none has been given to a human in a trial.

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 Osteocalcin 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.