Is Platelet Factor 4 legal in the United Kingdom?

A protein released by the tiny cells that help blood clot. In 2023, three separate labs reported it restored memory in old mice. There is more of it in young human blood than old, and it has never been given to a person.

Nobody has been given PF4 as a treatment, and no trial is registered. The human part of this is a measurement.

How it works: In mice, PF4 given through the body calms age-related inflammation in the memory centre of the brain, at the level of both gene activity and cells. It produces changes linked to brain connections adapting, and it improves memory.

Approval history: Not approved as a treatment, and never given to a person. In medicine, PF4 is what a lab test measures to check for heparin-induced thrombocytopenia, a drop in platelets caused by the blood thinner heparin. That is a test, not a treatment.

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 Platelet Factor 4 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 Platelet Factor 4 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 Platelet Factor 4 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.