Is Supaglutide legal in the United Kingdom?

Approved in China in January 2025 for type 2 diabetes. That approval rests on two studies in more than 700 adults. Almost everything you find under the name supaglutide is monkey and mouse work. That is because the human studies are listed under its official name, efsubaglutide alfa.

This drug is the clearest example on this site of a medicine that is hard to find for reasons that have nothing to do with its evidence. Search the main medical database for supaglutide and you get six records.

How it works: It is human GLP-1, the gut hormone that signals a meal has arrived, joined to a piece of a human antibody. That antibody piece lets the body recycle the drug instead of clearing it.

Approval history: Not approved in the United States. China's drug regulator, the National Medical Products Administration, approved it in January 2025 to control blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. There it is called efsubaglutide alfa, and it is on China's national list of drugs covered by public health insurance. Not approved for weight loss anywhere.

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 Supaglutide 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 Supaglutide 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 Supaglutide 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.