Is Senolytic vaccine (anti-GPNMB) legal in the United Kingdom?

A vaccine that teaches the immune system to attack GPNMB, a protein enriched on senescent cells. In mice it removed GPNMB-positive cells and extended lifespan in male progeroid animals. There is no human trial.

A Japanese group at Juntendo and Niigata published this in Nature Aging in 2021 and the headline wrote itself: a vaccine against ageing. What they did is narrower and more interesting than the headline.

Mechanism: GPNMB is a transmembrane glycoprotein enriched on senescent cells, which makes it a seno-antigen: a surface tag the adaptive immune system can be trained to recognise. Vaccination raises antibodies and cellular immunity against GPNMB, so GPNMB-bearing cells are cleared by the immune system rather than by a drug.

Regulatory history: Not approved anywhere and not in any registered human trial. This is a mouse result published in the peer-reviewed literature, not a product.

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 Senolytic vaccine (anti-GPNMB) 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.