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've been on intermittent rapamycin for almost three years. I looked at my pre-dosing dental pocket measurements and compared them to post dosing (about 2.4 years later) and saw a 27% improvement on my upper teeth and a 5% improvement on my lower teeth total additive pocket depths.
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Mark Thimineur How much Rapa are you giving your dog, and what is his weight? Also, where did you get the Rapa? Thank you
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Tom Sage Dog weighs 7 kilos. Dose is 0.5mg twice weekly. Currently the medication is Biocon Sirolimus tablets 1mg cut in half.
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Hey Tom,
Not sure about the correct dose, but I've been giving my 11.9 yr old Chow Chow pup 2 mg of Sirolimus once a week for about 7-8 months. Not even sure about her weight, but I think about 55 lbs. She's done fine on it, and I'm wondering if I should up the dose a titch , as I can't figure out a way to get her to take it with grapefruit juice 😁. I take 3 mg once a week as well , and also have had zero side effects .
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angie4life Your dog weighs 25 kg. To up the dose give the 2mg twice weekly which is 0.08mg/kg. per dose. Canine metabolism is 30 hour half life compared to human metabolism of rapamycin at 60-70 hours suggesting that twice weekly would be appropriate timing for their drug metabolism. The dosing in the dog aging project is twice weekly last time I checked.
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Mark Thimineur thanks so much!
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Have been taking 6 mg Rapa weekly for 3 years, was Dr. Greens 2nd. patient 3 years ago. Am a 73 yo healthy male. I was motivated by Steve Roedde and I ordered and received 1.5 grams(1500 mg) of Pharma grade 99% Rapamycin powder from China, I paid $190 including $40 for shipping. No problem with Customs. (I live in Spain) Also, received 1 kg. Pharma grade Lactose powder which I will use to cut my Rapa. My intention is to mix the Rapa with 1/2 kg., 500 gm (500,000 mg.) of Lactose. Will hand mix per the protcol set forth on Pharma video for mixing powders. I will be using a SS spoon, instead of a Mortar and Pestal. Start with 1.5 grams rapa and add 1.5 grams of latose, mix very well, add 3.0 grams of latose to mixture and mix well, (doubling the mixture in bowl each cycle) repeating until all 500 grams has been mixed with the rapa. Time consuming, but the correct way to do it. Each 333.333 mg. (3.333 g) will contain 1 mg. Rapa. 500,000/1500.
I have not had the Rapa checked by the lab, but I have my lab results from 3 years back, and will be interesting to compare. I tried to pick a Pharma company that was legimate, to the best of my knowledge. Have included 4 pics. 3 of Rapa Assay, and 1 of Latose Powder. Any suggestions or help is appreciated.
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Van Bravo. Please keep us posted as you work through the process.
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Patient 139 I am doing an update appx. 1 month after starting Rapa on my new compounded mixture. My main concern, was it really 99% Sirolimus as stated in the COA (Certificate of Analysis). I have not had the powder tested. We have been on lock down now for 2 months in Spain.
I wanted to take the max dose I could without any side effects in order to get max anti aging benefits. I took 10 mg. the first dose which was 3.333 g. of my compounded powder. On the fifth day after dosing, I got a mouth sore on my inner cheek. This was a good sign for me because I have had a lot of experience with Rapa over the last 3 years. (all studies have indicated that simply reducing or not taking Rapa and symptoms disappear) I reduced my next weekly dose to 6 mg. and had no adverse symptoms. 3rd. dose was 10 mg. and that was without side effects. Then increased to 12 mg on 4th. dose and on exactly the fifth day I got multiple sores on my tongue and inner cheek. Now I know that 12 mg is too much, and reduced this week to 8 mg and don't expect any adverse symptoms. My next dose will be 10 mg and if that goes well will try 11 mg, but will not go back to 12 mg. because that is where I got a lot of sores last time. If I get any adverse symptoms in the future at any dose, I will back down to a lower dose.
There is no doubt that my Rapa is for real and I will be taking 10-11 mg weekly for sometime. I am so glad that I ordered the powder from China and compounded it. I now have a 3 year supply of appx. 150 weeks at 10 mg. weekly. Have spent thousands on Rapa the last 3 years. I have frozen the compound in a dark bag to keep out the light. Take out 2 months worth at a time and store in fridge.
Hope this helps anyone contemplating taking Rapa for anti aging benefits.
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Van Many thanks for the update and your experiences. I'm a month or two away from my own journey down your same path. I will relate my progress and results. The path ahead is always easier because of the work of our predecessors. Stay well.
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Wow, you are right, real Rapamune is $35 a milligram. Insane!
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By taking grapefruit juice with rapamycin, it's possible to lower the dose;
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Ludovic Debels You have an expert on this site that has given you the protocol for taking grapefruit juice with rapa. His name is Dr. Mark Thimineur, and here is his post from 7 months ago.
- Mark Thimineur
- mark_thimineur
- 7 mths ago
Karl For myself and anyone who is "self pay" the source is Biocon "Sirolimus" through online Canadian Pharmacy. Price $349 per 100 1mg tabs. For patients who go through insurance it is Pfizer Rapamune. It seems some of the Medicare D plans cover it, at least for now. Once I started the higher cycling regimen, I started using grapefruit juice to impair intestinal P450 and spike absorption 3 fold (half life is unnaffected). It becomes to expensive for many people otherwise and I always do myself what I tell my patients to do. I have to accept that there is a known variability of grapefruit juice effect on sirolimus absorption of 250%-350% so the actual dose may be a little lower or higher and I accept this small risk (again, well studied insider info). Grapefruit juice protocol is one fresh squeezed large fruit about 8 hours prior to dose (night before) and one large fresh squeezed grapefruit morning of with rapamycin taken 30 minutes later. Assume an average 300% increased absorption to determine the proper dose (1/3 of the mg/kg/wk without juice). So far so good.
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Van Great info, Thanks!!
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Van Given we (certainly I ) take a boat load of other nutricals each day and this grapfruit tactic is broad (time span) what else may also be bumped up in aborbstion?
Dasatinib, fisetin, metformin, all sorts of chinese herbs etc etc?
Do you have a suggestion to be outside the bump up window for other things? Tnx alot.
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Does anyone know of a vet in NC, or anywhere else for that matter, that will prescribe Rapa for my Dog? He is in good health, but is starting to experience age-related issues with his legs. It breaks my heart to see him having problems. He is everything to me and I want to do everything/anything I can to help him. I have Dogs my whole life, but this little guy is so deep in my heart and I really want to help him. Can anyone please help me? I really need to find either a vet to prescribe, or a reliable source to purchase Rapa for him.
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Billy Smith Some ideas... Cold Laser Therapy can really help with this. It helped my dogs so much I bought my own laser for $5K, and I use it on my dogs and myself. Best purchase I ever made. Lots of vets offer laser treatments. It is harmless and is incredible against imflammation, which is likely a big part of your problem. Make sure you are giving glucosamine. It doesn't absorb that well, but should be present when he needs it. Rapa might help although it is more of a preventive. You can get it with a GoodRx coupon at Walmart, though not cheap. If you can get to a vet that offers stem cell or PRP injections, that can also be a game changer. You can give human grade anti-inflammatories like curcumin and boswellia which will help with a lot of other things as well. I open the capsules and mix nutrients with food. Just avoid human nutrients with xylitol as it is deadly. People report Carbon C60 is great for dogs, but I have not tried it yet. There are some dog preparations available. Senolytic treatments with fisetin or even dasatinib + quercitin should be good since they work on mice and men. If you want to venture out of the box there are many possibilities. You have to do your research, though. And all this stuff is great for you too if you are older.
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Billy Smith I can't help you with vets in the Carolinas. I can suggest that you obtain it for yourself and use it for your dog - that seems somewhat easier. I can also suggest relative dosing. The dog aging project is using very small doses of .05-.1mg/kg. Conversion of rodent dosing to canine dose is a little complicated because dogs can be such different sizes. That said, I have advised a number of patients how to dose there dogs and have about 10 patients (and my own dog) treating their pets with .4-.6mg/kg every two weeks. The pets respond very well. One vet commented on a 12 year old Boxer that he was surprised at the improvement in health and the weight loss (8 pound) since the last visit and wanted to know what new diet the dog was on. This dog began to play with the young dogs in the house and began jumping up on the owner when greeting, something he had not done in several years. Another 15 year old pet regrew fur and began walking normally wheras before rapamycin had a noticable arthritic gait. My own dog has become spunkier, if you know what I mean. From one dog lover to another, good luck.
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I tried to find the main rapamycin thread here. A few that where just place holders for links to other groups. Please redirect me if this is not the main thread.
Another area /maybe this thread mentions increasing the aborbsion of rapa by ?? 25x via white grapefruit juice pre / post rapa dose.
Has anyone added this tactic to reduce the rapa total cost/consumption?
I agree if you buy from China at $60/gram why bother with grapefruit juice and affecting other things too. Even from India at $1/1mg for $5/week it may be a why bother. But still its a useful discussion that we may want to do this as a std protocol, no? tnx
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Curtis Smith These threads are all over the lot.
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Patient 139 The search feature works very well for me.
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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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Based on some of the earlier posts, I ordered a 1 gram sample of Sirolimus from "Xi'an Henrikang Biotech Co., Ltd." on Alibaba.
The delivered sample is labeled "Acrylic Paint" but the vendor says this: >> Hello, it's real Rapamycin, we mark letter R on the bag. If we send package by FedEx, we should change the product name for easy delivery. Sorry that we should tell you this information in advance. <<
Is this legit? Anyone here have a similar experience or have dealt with a reliable vendor? -
Sorry, wrong supplier name - it was "Wuhan Hengheda Pharm Co., Ltd.".
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Umesh Sood , Same supplier as I used. The one where my Sirolimus levels were identical to when I took "Rapamune": at the same dose. If you decide to have your supply tested for potency/purity (always advised), I suggest you post the results here.
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