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 have been giving my 17 year old British shorthair cat who has severe hypertrophic cardiomyopathy ( takes a blood thinner and betablocker every 12h) a 0,13 mg/ kg dose of rapamycin once a week for the last half year with no side effects. He survived a severe stroke a half year ago.
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denial I really don't see how UDS 259.- is a good price for 100mg of Rapamycin...?
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Chris Los I agree. Here is an article about the different cost profiles for different avenues of buying rapamycin:
https://www.rapamycin.news/t/how-to-buy-rapamycin-what-is-the-cost-pt2/68
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Brin Chikovski Thanks for that link. You can also try one of the Life Extension doctors listed here. https://health.lifeextension.com/innovativedoctors/ And, some of the doctors who advertise bio-identical hormone replacement therapy will also work with you on this. I know of two in my area that are not listed on either link who will prescribe. But they don't take insurance.
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Chuck Frasher I tried that initially when I was trying to get rapamycin - called all the local doctors from that LifeExtension list in my area - but none of them knew anything about rapamycin and wouldn't prescribe it. That was two years ago - so it may have changed, but it was just frustrating. Here is a list of doctors that are verified to prescribe rapamycin.
https://www.rapamycin.news/t/doctors-that-prescribe-rapamycin-part-2/69
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Historical moment!
my first rapa dilution: 1g rapa plus 99g lactose and some red dye. Took my first 4mg rapa! -
Has anyone tried commercial Rapamycin cream for the skin with any success? Any brands that work best? Does one also need a doctor’s prescription for just the cream? I’ve read people make it themselves but don’t know how they’d mix it effectively or even if the skin absorbs it well.
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Paula Marie you might want to review the discussions on this, especially the comments by Mark Thimineur.
Here is one of his posts on the subject: It would be much less expensive if you simply make your own. First purchase Dimethyl sulfoxide liquid (3.4 Oz - 100ml), Pharmaceutical grade, High purity, Heiltropfen from Amazon for $13.70. Then purchase DMSO Cream With Aloe Vera - Lavender Scented, Made With 99.9% Pure Pharmaceutical grade DMSO - 70% DMSO/30% Aloe Vera, Made in USA for Live Better Naturals 4 oz from Amazon for $19.87.
Take 3mg of sirolimus - if from capsule it is already powder, if from tablet you have to use mortar and pestle. Mix that with 3-4 ml of DMSO. I suggest using a small capped test tube or something that can be shaken vigorously and allowed to sit for 10 minutes so all the sirolimus is dissolved. The fillers in the capsule or tablets won't dissolve completely so the solution will be cloudy.
Scoop the DMSO cream into another bowl and mix in the DMSO/sirolimus thoroughly and place back into the original container and label it as containing 3mg sirolimus. With the expected wastage this will give you about 25 micromolar topical for a cost of about $33.60 plus the cost of rapamycin which is about $1 per milligram from Tailor Made, more or less from other supplies. My total cost is $36.60. The amount of grams in the 4 ounce cream tub is 118. So I am able to easily create the equivalent of four 30 gram containers of more potent (25 micromolar) topical for the cost one less potent (11 micromolar) topical from Tailor Made.
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chuck stanley I'm not sure why you would use DMSL for a face cream. Dr Green just mixes it with a moisturizing cream.
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Charles Richardson I'm not sure either.
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chuck stanley Thank you so much for taking all that time to explain things so well! Have you noticed an improvement in your skin since using it?
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Paula Marie thanks, but the credit for the detailed explanation should go to Mark Thimineur.
There is no doubt that the cream works. That is evident from the pinch test on the back of the hand. The decrease in pinch recovery time was remarkable in my case and similar results have been reported by others as well.
I used up 2 jars over a period of about 9 months until I ran out... with once daily application. However, I have the perception that on my face the effects of aging are outpacing the effects of the cream. I think that although there is an improvement in fine lines and texture, overall I'm not looking any younger.
I'm getting ready to mix up a new batch of cream with a very slight increase in strength and a plan to apply twice daily.
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chuck stanley could not decipher this mix of grams and ounces and molarities. would be great if we could stick to metric units here! ok, so 3mg of sirolimus, plus 3-4ml of DMSO plus how many g of cream to get a 25micromolar concentration of sirolimus? thanks!
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Chris Los Mark says 118 grams, which is 4 oz of cream, the amount that comes in a jar.
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Paula Marie I don't think you will find any doctors who will prescribe this except Dr Green and he may be too busy to accept new clients...:-) We just don't know if this is worth the effort except for some well defined skin pathologies such as angiofibromas. Dr. Green and many others use topical rapa primarily for benign skin damage such as actinic keratosis. Frankly, you are much likely better of with a topical fluorouracil creme for AKs. works very well and very fast (1-2 weeks). topical rapa is not worth the effort unless you are a nerd (e.g ex-scientist etc) like some of us who like to do exploratory experimentation!
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chuck stanley thanks chuck!
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chuck stanley Thanks Chuck! I guess skin wrinkles will remain a tough challenge, lol. Nothing seems to get rid of them! If the pinch test improved, then that possibly means an increase of hydration. I did see a photo in a scientific journal of a woman who used rapamycin cream on only one hand for 4 months—that hand looked about seven years younger, though I don’t know what dose of cream it was.
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Chris Los I’ve never heard of topical fluorouracil creme. Does that treat aging skin? Thanks for your information!
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Paula Marie sun damaged skin, precancerous lesions. FU does not do anything for wrinkles. Afaik, unless we can restore the capacity of seborrheic glands to produce more fatty acids the way they do in younger skin, we will probably have to live with wrinkles...
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Chris Los Oh, sigh! That’s sad news. To think something very serious can be helped, but not those darn wrinkles!
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Paula Marie It treats red spots, precancerous issues. A strong, compounded topical Retin-A has made my red and brown spots practically disappear in under a month. The red spots from fluorouracil diminished a very little bit over a 4 month period.
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Michael was your Retin-A compounded with another ingredient (what) or compounded to a higher strength (what strength)?
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Michael
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Paula Marie That’s good to know. Does one need a doctor’s prescription for topical fluorouracil creme? I wonder if Rapamycin cream would do something similar?
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