Is Ziconotide legal in the United States?

A pain drug made from cone snail venom, approved in 2004 for severe long-term pain. It only works when a pump implanted under the skin drips it into the spinal fluid. It carries the FDA's strongest warning, for serious mental and nerve side effects. In a study of 111 people with cancer or AIDS pain, pain scores fell 53.1 percent on the drug and 18.1 percent on a dummy. There is no pill, shot or cream version, and there cannot be one.

Ziconotide is a man-made copy of a small protein, 25 building blocks long, from the venom of a sea snail called Conus magus. The FDA approved it in December 2004 for adults with severe long-term pain.

How it works: It blocks one type of calcium channel, called N-type, on the nerve endings that carry pain into the spinal cord. With calcium blocked, those nerve endings cannot release the chemicals that pass the pain signal on.

Approval history: FDA-approved on 28 December 2004 under NDA 021060, for severe long-term pain in adults. It is for people who need a drug pumped into the fluid around the spinal cord, and who cannot take other treatments or got no relief from them. That pump into the spinal fluid is the only approved way to give it. The label carries a boxed warning, the FDA's strongest kind, for severe mental health symptoms and problems with brain and nerve function.

Approves prescription drugs, each for a named use. It also acts against unapproved products, including peptides sold online. Compounding pharmacies, which mix drugs to order, may make some compounds with a prescription. That only applies when the FDA puts the compound in a category of bulk ingredients it allows.

The legal category above is how The Longevity Archive reads U.S. Food and Drug Administration listings for Ziconotide 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 FDA directly

Whether Ziconotide is banned in sport is set by the World Anti-Doping Code and by military rules, not by its legal status in the United States. Before you compete or get tested, look up Ziconotide 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.