Is Semax / Selank legal in the United Kingdom?

Two Russian peptides sold as a pair, either as separate nasal sprays or as one combined bottle, on the pitch that one sharpens and the other calms. No study has tested them together. The single products have Russian clinical data, 110 stroke patients for Semax and 62 anxiety patients for Selank, and neither was blinded against placebo. A combined spray at 2.5 mg per mL of each inverts the ratio the two are registered at in Russia.

Semax and Selank are the two peptides that came out of the same Russian institutional programme and ended up in the same medicine cabinet. Semax is a synthetic analogue of ACTH 4-10 registered in Russia and Ukraine for stroke recovery and cognitive disorders.

Mechanism: Semax, an ACTH 4-10 analogue with added residues for stability, raises BDNF and NGF expression and modulates melanocortin and dopaminergic signalling; in rats a single dose raised hippocampal BDNF protein and trkB phosphorylation. Selank, a tuftsin analogue, modulates GABA and monoamine systems and influences enkephalin degradation and BDNF expression, producing anxiolysis without the sedation profile of benzodiazepines.

Regulatory history: Not approved as a blend or as single agents. Both are registered medicines in Russia; neither has FDA or EMA approval, and no combination product is registered anywhere.

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 Semax / Selank 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.