{"slug":"igf-1-lr3","seoKey":"igf1lr3","displayName":"IGF-1 LR3","codes":[],"synonyms":["Long R3 IGF-I","LongR3 IGF-I","Long[R3]IGF-I","LR3IGF-I","LR3-IGF-1","IGF-1 Long R3","Long-(Arg3)insulin-like growth factor-I","Long R3 insulin-like growth factor-I","LONG R3 IGF-1 (human)","Insulin-like growth factor long chain R3"],"legalClass":"rx","identifiers":{"unii":"M9L22Y19H9","wikidataQid":"Q20707573","formula":"C400H623N111O115S9","molecularWeight":9120,"sequence":"MFPAMPLSSLFVNGPRTLCGAELVDALQFVCGDRGFYFNKPTGYGSSSRRAPQTGIVDECCFRSCDLRRLEMYCAPLKPAKSA"},"approvals":[{"market":"US","status":"not_approved","note":"Not approved and never has been: no entry in the drug approval records and no prescription product labelling on 2026-09-15, while a control query for the approved relative mecasermin returned one entry on the same endpoint, so the negative finding is verified. The substance nevertheless reached the market as a prescription injection: two recall records of 2019 describe recalled stock verbatim as 'Rx Only' in two strengths, 620 mcg and 3 mg, distributed nationwide, classified class II for lack of sterility assurance. That dispensing had no legal basis. A bulk substance may only be compounded under section 503A if it has a pharmacopoeial monograph, is a component of an approved medicine, or appears on the corresponding bulk substances list; this substance meets none of the three and was never even nominated. One further entry looks like an approval and is not: a homeopathic over-the-counter product at dilutions of 12x to 400x declares the substance as a component, and homeopathic products are listed rather than approved.","source":"https://api.fda.gov/drug/enforcement.json?search=%22IGF-1%22"},{"market":"EU","status":"not_approved","note":"No authorised medicine, no assessment report and no withdrawn application. The complete medicines list was downloaded on 2026-09-15 and searched for the substance name and its spelling variants with no match, while control terms in the same file were found several times over. The substance appears only in the regulator's substance dictionary, which is an identification entry and neither an authorisation nor an application. The approved member of the class is a different substance, mecasermin, authorised since 2007-08-02; a second one, mecasermin rinfabate, was withdrawn by the applicant on 2007-03-26.","source":"https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines"},{"market":"DE","status":"not_approved","note":"Not an authorised medicine: there is neither a central European authorisation nor a national finished product, and a substance with a medicinal purpose may not be placed on the market without one. The anti-doping act is more explicit here than most: its schedule lists 'IGF-1 Analoga' as a line of its own, directly beneath the entry for mecasermin, and the schedule expressly extends to salts, esters, ethers, isomers, complexes and derivatives. The accompanying quantity regulation sets the criminally relevant amount for the group at 3 mg, against 60 mg for mecasermin itself, one of the lowest figures in the whole schedule. Not listed in annexes I, II or III of the narcotics act.","source":"https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/dmmv_2023/anlage.html"},{"market":"UK","status":"not_approved","note":"No authorised medicine and no product record. IMPORTANT CAVEAT on that point: the products register could not be queried on 2026-09-15, because it serves results by script and its interface endpoints answered with an error, so the negative finding rests on the absence of any authorisation worldwide rather than on a register extract. Verified by contrast is the criminal-law position: the full text of the controlled-drugs schedule was read on 2026-09-15 and names somatotropin, somatrem, somatropin and chorionic gonadotrophin, but no insulin-like growth factor. Growth hormones are controlled here, this class is not, which leaves the general rules for unlicensed medicines. The approved relative mecasermin is available on prescription.","source":"https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1971/38/schedule/2"},{"market":"AU","status":"scheduled","date":"2026-05-27","note":"The clearest prescription classification of any market checked, and it is quoted rather than inferred. The Poisons Standard names 'INSULIN-LIKE GROWTH FACTOR I.' and 'INSULIN-LIKE GROWTH FACTORS except when separately specified in this Schedule' in schedule 4, both marked as also carrying an appendix D entry. The index confirms both, and item 24 of appendix D, clause 5, headed 'Poisons for which possession without authority is illegal', names the class. The group entry captures the analogue directly. No registered finished product exists, which leaves the notable combination of a prescription requirement for a substance no prescriber can obtain as an authorised medicine, plus a possession ban. Mecasermin is listed separately in the same instrument.","source":"https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2026L00633/asmade"},{"market":"CA","status":"not_approved","note":"Not approved: the active-ingredient query of the drug product database returned an empty result on 2026-09-15 for both the analogue name and the class name. A control query for mecasermin returned one entry on the same endpoint, marketed since 2021-03-01, so the negative finding is verified.","source":"https://health-products.canada.ca/api/drug/activeingredient/?ingredientname=insulin-like"},{"market":"CH","status":"not_approved","note":"No authorisation. Notably, the whole active-substance class is absent here: the list of authorised packs for human medicines was downloaded on 2026-09-15 and searched for the analogue, for mecasermin and for the trade name of the approved product, with no match in any case, while control terms in the same file returned nineteen matches. So unlike the United States, the European Union and Canada, Switzerland has no authorised member of this class at all.","source":"https://www.swissmedic.ch/swissmedic/en/home/services/listen_neu.html"}],"devStage":"preclinical","strongestEvidence":"animal","wada":{"status":"prohibited","section":"S2.3","listYear":2026,"source":"https://www.wada-ama.org/en/prohibited-list"},"trials":[],"sameAs":["https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q20707573"],"lastVerified":"2026-09-15","version":"1.0","published":true,"locale":"en","title":"IGF-1 LR3: what the studies show, status and safety","summary":"IGF-1 LR3 is a laboratory reagent, not a medicine. It is a rebuilt version of the human growth factor IGF-1, made in Adelaide in 1992 so that researchers could bypass the blood proteins that normally keep IGF-1 in check. No country has ever approved it, and no clinical trial of it has ever been registered. Its best-documented effect in animals is a long, deep fall in blood sugar, and the same infusion that saved muscle protein in rats slowed growth in pigs.","updated":"2026-09-15","url":"https://mypep.app/peptides/igf-1-lr3"}