Kachela Sirolimus Seized by Customs Again: Help!

Hi, and welcome to the forums. Thanks for posting.

Yes - we’ve heard of this issue with compounded sirolimus from many sources over the past few years:

Here: New Peter Attia interview w/Matt Kaeberlein, inferior bioavailability of encapsulated rapa

Here: Bioavailability of Rapamycin From Compounding Pharmacy

And there is an additional problem with Dan’s suggestion with the China-supplier of powder option; the Chinese suppliers are famously unreliable for quality of product, so you are likely to get something contaminated and/or not of high purity or quality. The HPLC testing by a good analytical lab costs far more (frequently between $500 to $1,000 and even then its hard to know what impurities to look for if you don’t know the details of the manufacturing process and inputs).

So yes, for 99.9% of the people who visit here, regular tablets from proven sources is the best option.

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I just received a shipment from Anil in record time, though the customs for the West Coast may be different. I usually try for very small shipments and don’t order more than one thing at a time. The issue, I believe, is not drug quality, since many drugs sold in the US originate in India and China, but huge pressure from pharma companies to block low price competition. All you have to do is read up on how they prevent generic versions by various dubious legal manuevers to see this pressure at work.

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I just sent 800 pills to my parents from India (Jagdish) by EMS and it made it through US customs and to my parents. I now have a 1200 pill delivery on it’s way. We shall see if that gets through!

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My small order from Jagdish has been in NY customs since the start of the month.

It’s still Early, things frequently take a number of weeks to work their way through customs.

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My shipment of sirolimus from Medswala has been intercepted by customs. Customs keeps a database of senders and receivers of shipments that fail inspections.

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Sorry to hear that, schotmanb. Yes, logically it makes perfect sense that such a database exists. That said I haven’t seen it factually confirmed, though speculated about on this forum in various threads. It would be interesting to hear from someone in the know, who could give a definitive answer. And if yes, then one would expect that once a shipment has been seized, that vendor lands in the database and whatever the next shipment is, it triggers a flag and gets inspected. But have we actually observed this, or is it the case that sometimes it goes through, and sometimes not? Because otherwise it’s a case of one-and-done, the vendor is burned, end of story. I seem to recall that some folks had the experience of both - shipments flying through and getting confiscated from the same vendor, which would make it a bit of a mystery as to how such a database is operating, unless there’s something I’m not understanding here. In any case it’s stressful - I myself am waiting on a couple of packages, and it’s been a little over three weeks… I’m not panicking yet, but sure would prefer if it weren’t such a drag.

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Its worth working out what the strict legal position is in each country. The UK has a concept of a controlled drug (such as cannabis which is legal in some other jurisdictions). People are allowed to import drugs which are not controlled substances for their own personal use (which includes their family). They are, however, not allowed to sell them. (without a licence)

Customs, therefore, should not be seizing legal imports. I don’t know what the rules are for the US or Canada and I think some EU countries are more restrictive.

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I covered the US rules and practical application of those rules, in this post: Importing Rapamycin to Save Money (2)

That’s interesting in that strictly it is banned, but the FDA have guidelines that don’t enforce the ban in some circumstances.