Rapamycin Cost

Let me clear some things up for people considering rapamycin (generic sirolimus).  I am taking it and so are my dogs!!  (I have a very open-minded vet who trusts my judgement.)

Dr. Green, a very impressive individual, gave me my personal prescription for sirolimus.  I have a very good PPO (Blue Cross/Blue Shield).  I took it to CVS, the affiliated pharmacy, and got a great price of about $2.90/mg.  (Remember, you are only going to take about 3-6 mg/week.)  With a PPO you can probably do this also.  CVS wants to meter it to you with a month's worth of doses at a time, but that's just how they do things.  You still have access to the full quantity prescribed. 

With the prescription from my vet for my dogs, I was forced to take to the open sea.  Armed with only a prescription and no insurance, the picture is quite different, but you can still get a good price.  Cutting to the chase, I ended up at Walmart.  The prescription was for 90 mg - price $1440.  But wait! after presenting a coupon downloaded from GoodRX (that's right, just anonymously downloaded and printed) - price $396!!!!  As my vet remarked, that's a hell of a charge for not looking around first!  ($4.40/mg is better than taking a risk buying online, in my opinion.)  Costco is pretty close to that price.  At CVS/RiteAid, etc., you will pay vastly more.

You can't touch the original drug rapamune (Pfizer) unless you are wealthy or go to Canada.  The problem with the online pharmacies is that a lot of them are scams.  Just because they have a website doesn't mean anything.  At least check to see if they have a brick and mortar location.  Example: At one point I was excited by the online infomercials and wanted to take NMN instead of NR; however, when I looked up the reputations of the suppliers only one was unsullied, and on further investigation their brick and mortar location turned out to be a residential dwelling!

FYI, more than one company makes sirolimus.  From CVS the sirolimus was made by Greenstone, LLC, apparently a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer.

Hope that helps some people who are considering rapamycin but think it might be out of their reach.  If you know a doctor, great, but if you don't a visit to Dr. Green is worth the trip, and I live in CA!  (round trip less than $300)  Do your homework first and you will learn a great deal.

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  • I just wanted to thank those that offered their experiences for acquiring Rapamycin via Alibaba...  I was able to receive the 1 gram "sample" from the link provided iN this thread, and the shipment arrived 14 days later...  The sample provided was 1,114 mg and I was able to cut the sample using lactose and the recommended method of geometric mixing...  a shooter's reloading scale, stainless mixing bowl, and silicone whisker did the trick, probably spent a good hour mixing in all the additions...  Took my first 5 mg dose and there is something very positive going on the next day with sleep, energy, mental focus, and well being.  I am 55, excellent nutrition, supplementation, exercise and no health issues.  Have been taking metformin for the last year, and will continue.  I plan to increase the dose 1 mg per week until mouth ulceration is experienced, and will back off of that level, this to determine the optimal dose as explained in the literature in this thread.  So thanks for the information, and just another data point about securing Rapa from a supplier on Alibaba.

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    • Steve Roedde Thank you. Was your packet also marked with a different name or was it marked as Rapamycin? I also did not get any certificate of analysis. I am a bit reluctant to accept a packet that is marked as 'Acrylic Paint'!

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    • Umesh Sood I know of one other purchaser who had that label. Not mine  though. Just an "R". And "sample" on the customs declaration (s). I have purchased a couple of times from them... really helpful. If you send them a message via AliBaba they will almost certainly provide a COA. Nothing comes in the package because one does not want to provide more ammunition for the customs people trying to ensure you purchase brand-name medications (probably manufactured from  Rapamycin manufactured in Wuhan).

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    • Steve Roedde Thank you for your comments, very helpful indeed! I will certainly contact them via message as you suggested.

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    • Umesh Sood I would not worry about it at all. Are you really that disturbed that it says acrylic paint on it? They are trying to get it through customs safely for you, dont you understand?

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    • Umesh Sood Same Supplier here too, working good, have CofC and levels in blood.

      Like
      • Jay Orman
      • Jay_Orman
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Umesh Sood Did you resolve your concern about Henrikang Biotech Co. versus Hengheda Pharm Co.?  If so, what are your thoughts now.  I've been researching both companies, and am still not sure which is best.  Thanks.

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  • Thanks to the team and inputs here:

    Another data point with the China Purchase of 10 grams for $660 includes the shipping cost. Obviously a couple people for a couple years each, a dog and for skin cream development. Male 60 and Female 53 in good health, no other meds, I'm athletic, she is not, looking for weight loss for her. My mom is 87, no meds, all her friends are dead, she still drives and works out with a trainer. She will also be on this for an old lady data point. On its way, should be here soon and will update if something happens.

    Have 0,1mg scale ($300) range, simple cylindrical rock tumbler that I will use to perform extended mixing with red pill excipient off Amazon. I will also use gel caps Size 5 and a small hand unit to fill them with the 2,5-5 mg Rapa per dosage mixture I come up with. Have already looked, 1mg is infinitesimal amount of powder so will have to make a big batch to even fill size 5's.

    I ran the stats on the small gunpowder scale and it is not doing so well, so I made sure to spend extra on the balance above to get something within the target measurements capability. Otherwise you have to make excessive batch sizes to be sure to be within 10%,,,,as I see some don't care about more than 10% dose difference, should be OK. The smaller the batch, the less storage issues I think?

     

    For the cream, I will dissolve the Rapa powder in Vodka and add to a few mixes of coconut or other oils. May do DMSO or other solvents, those are mentioned in the patents. Even just heating may be enough to melt it, so we will see. But in a solvent it should be much easier to mix evenly into any oils. I always add a drop of oregano oil to make sure Im mixing clear contents up properly.  Any other ideas on the cream? Crazy the number of patents with every conceivable delivery system or process for Rapa. Stents, Bone, heart, brain...everything pretty well covered, a lot of money to make, so I expect this to be the new vitamin next decade ;)

    Thanks again to everyone for the honest discussions.

    Like 2
    • Steve Olsen 10,000mg for $660 is about 7 cents a milligram, killer price.

      I pay about $3/mg.

      Like 2
    • Steve Olsen Good work. What of the cream? Have not heard of its use.

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    • Patient 139 There are many, many posts about it on here, dont know how you missed them.

      Like
    • Fred Cloud no, you don't.

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  • Seemed like a good price,  actually received two quotes from two suppliers and this one was the more expensive one, but shipping was cheaper so about the same total. Heck I spend more than $150 per month for two people on supplements now, another $30 per person and maybe I can drop the Resveratrol, PQQ, and a couple others and offset this, actually save money in the end. I'll have to consider the rest in the cost later.

    Skin Cream

    Yes, there is a paper on a study with 0.001 percent cream, other studies had much higher percentages.

    https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11357-019-00113-y

    "A notable aspect of this study is the use of such a low dose of rapamycin (10 μM, or 0.001%) for topical application. Topical treatment with higher concentrations (0.1–1%) has been employed for the treatment of tuberous sclerosis ..."

     

    So we can make a cream/oil/lotion product at .01-.001 percent and get favorable results. Seems pretty inexpensive to me. Also, they did not see any leakage into the bloodstream. They show before and after results and sections of the skin that showed improved collagen production and retention. VERY promising indeed, the cellular structure that appeared chaotic, realigned and rebuilt itself...that's the kind of thing that reverses ageing!

    These are the reasons I decided to go big on the order, I can easily make up lipbalm, creams, #5 capsules for a year supply with 300mg per person range. Try it out on three people at Low 50's, 60's and high 80's and get lots of data quickly. Get some blood work to keep track. Have a dozen other family members that will be interested if successful. looking for the Serolimus blood level test locally, might have to drive an hour to get this. This type of self doctoring seems the norm these days.

    Lots of Doctors here, some good non-doc inputs too. My neighbors are docs, Surgical, ER and General...say their hands are pretty tied on new things and it is pretty hard to break out from the "system". So I understand where they are coming from. Good to have lots of inputs from various sources here...good team! I do not trust mouse results to translate well, but we don't have 30 years to wait for real science to catch up, we are all dead by then.

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  • I'm going to get another 1g sample from the Alibaba supplier and give the skin lotion a try... I don't think accurate measurement is all that important, Blagosklonny implies that Rap isn't toxic and most likely can't overdose on it as he references a case where a woman tried to unsuccessfully commit suicide by downing 100 1mg tablets with no effect.  I think I'm just going to get a micro spoon and try to get a "pinch" in it Lol and just mix it up in the palm of my hand with my favorite face conditioning lotion and apply.  Just not sure how frequent to apply it, I'll read the article and see what the protocol was for the study.

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    • Peregrinatum Your assumption that you cant overdose topically is wrong. Read the study and you will be very afraid of what happened with higher doses

      Like 1
  • I just received my second order (same supplier as my first) ...10.48 grams... for ~$650 Canadian. At the price I was paying for "Rapamune" brand in the local pharmacy... over $100,000.00 Canadian. I had been a bit concerned about supply chains... anyway, it's happy in my freezer. As before, I'll compound it, take it (back to my 1mg per day dose) test my levels, and if they are the same as all of my initial tests at that dose, I'll assume it is the real deal. Of course they supplied a COA... but I no longer trust any supplier... but my confidence in the one I have used is growing.

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    • Steve Roedde yes Steve, same with mine a COA. I asked for HPLC and they said they will get me something. I used to work at a huge Chem company, typically in China, they use high quality inputs from the EU and perform the final batch cooking, so it should be pretty high quality and I am expecting some stainless steel trace element from the vessel. Any extra should be unreacted inputs. I know in India they prefer to synthesize their inputs too and tend to have poorer quality...at least thats how it was 15 years ago when I left..(also explains the huge made in China Pharma). I may have access to a lab, but we do not have pharma fingerprints for comparison so will just have to go on the basic chem inputs and look for contaminants, heavy metals, etc. But not expecting to find any. 

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  • Just received my 10 grams, awaiting some #5 capsules and capsule loading apparatus. 

    Skin cream: I looked up Dr. Green's site and he has been formulating his for his solar keratosis with 15mg/oz in Aquaphor cream. So I wanted something a little weaker and easier to work with so I used 10mg/oz, each tiny amount on my smallest stainless spoon is 3mg (microscopic amount), so I weighed out 40mg and melted it in DMSO 4-5 drops. Then I poured this into 4 ozs of ArboTrex (70/30 DMSO/Aloe). Saw it in other places on this site. Used red pill mix, which melted in the DMSO to provide a mixing quality agent and I have a wonderful pink skin cream with a pretty high concentration and it actually is a solvent that penetrates skin pretty quick. I have solar keratosis in a few spots on my hand and forehead, should see something in a few months. 

    I am waiting on taking Rapa pills to get a baseline test to see if there is any absorption into the bloodstream from the DMSO. I would expect some if the molecule is small enough...

    On over indulging, after seeing how small a few milligrams is and how potent this is  I want to be careful. A safe weight loss regimen is up to 25mg one time dose in 2 weeks, so even if we do get absorption, it would take the entire 4 oz of cream to get interesting....but, if I double up with absorption and low dose pills it may be too prolonged in my system and hit MTOR2, which I would like to avoid.  

    I'll let you know my results as the data comes in. 

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    • Steve Olsen where can I learn more about the safe weight loss regimen? 24 mg???

      Like
    • Julie Anderson google

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    • Julie Anderson hi Julie, this site and a couple others and I think Bloggoskiny have mentioned high dose for weight reset. My wife tried 25mg and she lost a few lbs that month but no more. At 5 to 6mg I have lost 10 lbs in three months. My wife also did a 4 day fast, which was a small improvement but not lasting so I think she needs a higher dose or longer fast for a better hormone reset. One other point, she is near menopause and it seems to be regular again so maybe this is getting in the way? My 88 mother called after two months and was clear for the first time in a couple of years! My solar keratosis on one hand have disappeared after 4 months and face is Improved after what appeared to be degradation which I think is a transition similar to retin A, first it kills bad cells then improves and replaces them. I will have my mom run Hematocrit and start on ip6 to see what's going on there based on this log. She has been on 3mgs per week and I want to up it to 4. My dog is next. Good luck to everyone. 

      Like 1
  • The home handyman's guide to using pure Rapamycin powder.

    1. Weigh .1g Rapamycin.

    2. Cut ends from 20 Splenda packets. Save packets. Empty contents into small round bottom glass bowl. (Dessert dish). Yields approx 20 G.

    3. Add Rapamycin to Splenda bowl. Mix 3 minutes with kitchen electric mixer paddle chucked into a variable speed cordless drill. Use low speed.

    4 .Weigh resulting contents. Divide by 20. Weigh out that amount 20 times placing each portion in one saved packet and seal each. Mix again after each 2 or 3 portions.

    5. Yields 20 - .005 G doses to be used in Sunday morning coffee for the next 20 weeks.

    Maybe a bit Redneck but it gets the job done. Your mileage may vary.

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  • Just ordered 30@3mg compounded Sirolimus from Tailor Made Compounding with a script from Dr Green.  Cost, including shipping, was USD $97.50

    Like 1
  • I've been reading these postings, some of them old, some of them recent, with interest.   I must say that that there are different concepts of what slowing down aging means, and people are arguing about methods, when in fact they are really arguing about the meaning.  Someone believes that slowing down aging means preventing the physical decline of muscle (sarcopenia) by taking HGH.  Someone else believes in slowing down aging at the molecular level by mimicking calorie reduction through Rapamycin , or by actually fasting.  I've always felt that if slowing down aging meant that I had to weight 140 pounds and not be able to pick up my grandchild off the floor, I probably did not want that for myself.   It does seem from all the research articles I've read that in order to accept a more youthful molecular makeup, you have to sacrifice the actual advantages of youth (e.g. strength, speed, food).   I don't think that either extreme is useful.   In my case, I am 64 years old, but my biological age is 10-15 years younger.  I attribute it to my being a weightlifter since I was 18, and not smoking, drinking excessively, or doing any drugs.   When much younger and thinking of becoming a professional bodybuilder I turned down steroids, and HGH, because I did not believe they were safe. And from the experience of friends over the years, I was probably correct in that assessment.  At 64, I have no high BP, no evidence of cardiovascular disease, no diabetes, no prostate problems, no ED, and only recently developed gray hairs.  I can do things at my age that people half my age wish they could do.  But 2 years ago, when I saw my HA1C creep up to 5.5, I started taking Metformin preventively, and I also started doing a modified 16-8 eating window.  So I'm not averse to trying things.   My point is that there are tradeoffs, and the goal should be to live longer with a reasonably youthful molecular makeup, while not having to be a weak, puny 140 lbs.  If that means sacrificing some years, I would be for that (but I realize not everyone may share my sentiment). 

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      • Van
      • Van
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      roger larre I am currently 74 yo., taking Rapamycin for 4 years.  I lived a similar life as you  did when I was younger.  Was running, 3-4 days a week, 5 miles runs at 64.  Then I turned 65 and my stamina and recovery time fell off a cliff.  Hope you can delay it longer than I could.  My calculated biological age is 47.  I feel good, but still do not have all the energy I would like.

    • Van Take a complete blood count.   It might be that your red blood cells have dropped, and that is why you are feeling weaker.    check for "hematocrit" and 

      "hemoglobin." see my page: http://www.rajeun.net/hb.html

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