Is Sodium phenylbutyrate legal in the United Kingdom?

In people, it is approved for a rare disease of ammonia build-up. A pill that paired it with a bile acid was approved for ALS and later pulled when a bigger trial failed. It targets two ageing processes at once: it helps misfolded proteins fold, and weakly changes how genes are switched. In mice, it did not extend lifespan in either sex.

This compound looked promising because it hits two items on the standard list of ageing hallmarks. One is the breakdown of protein quality control.

How it works: It does two known things. As a chemical chaperone, it steadies half-folded proteins in a general way and calms the cell's alarm for misfolded proteins.

Approval history: FDA-approved for urea cycle disorders, rare inherited conditions where ammonia builds up in the blood. It was also part of a combination drug approved for ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). That drug was later withdrawn after the study meant to confirm it failed. No ageing use.

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 Sodium phenylbutyrate 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 Sodium phenylbutyrate 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 Sodium phenylbutyrate 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.