Is Telaglenastat legal in the United Kingdom?

The only glutaminase inhibitor with randomised human data, and the data are oncology. Its pivotal trial in 444 patients with kidney cancer found median progression-free survival of 9.2 months against 9.3 on placebo. It has never been tested for senescence in a person.

Telaglenastat is an orally bioavailable, selective inhibitor of glutaminase 1, the enzyme that converts glutamine to glutamate. It matters to this catalogue because glutaminase inhibition is a senolytic mechanism in mice: senescent cells depend on glutaminolysis to buffer the acidity caused by lysosomal damage, and blocking it kills them.

Mechanism: Established in humans as pharmacology and in mice as senolysis, and these should not be merged. In people, telaglenastat blocks glutaminase 1, reducing the tumour's ability to use glutamine for biosynthesis; this was the rationale for combining it with cabozantinib and everolimus.

Regulatory history: Not approved for any indication. Investigational; the pivotal randomised phase 2 in renal cell carcinoma missed its primary endpoint in 2022 and several later company trials were terminated. No ageing or senescence indication is registered.

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 Telaglenastat 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.