Is Ruxolitinib legal in the United Kingdom?

An approved drug that blocks two signalling enzymes, JAK1 and JAK2. In old mice it quieted the inflammatory signals from worn-out 'zombie' cells and helped them move better. All of its human evidence is in myelofibrosis, a bone marrow cancer, where it shrinks swollen spleens. The cream version carries the FDA's strongest warning, for serious infections, death, cancer, heart problems and blood clots.

Ruxolitinib is the clearest example of a 'senomorphic' rather than a senolytic. A senolytic kills zombie cells.

How it works: Ruxolitinib blocks JAK1 and JAK2, two enzymes inside the cell that pass on signals from a big family of immune messenger receptors. Much of the inflammatory output of zombie cells is made and kept going through that pathway.

Approval history: FDA-approved as Jakafi pills for two bone marrow cancers, myelofibrosis and polycythaemia vera. Jakafi is also approved for graft-versus-host disease, where donor cells from a transplant attack the body, when steroids have not worked. That covers both sudden and long-term forms. It is also approved as Opzelura cream for eczema (atopic dermatitis) and for the common form of vitiligo (non-segmental). Not approved for ageing, frailty or clearing worn-out cells, and not in a registered trial for any of those.

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 Ruxolitinib 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 Ruxolitinib 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 Ruxolitinib 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.