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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Staffan: Are you interested in splitting a order? I'm assuming you live in Sweden as I do.
How much does a lab analysis cost in general btw?
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Stefan Ihlberg I am interested if you consider buying a large quantity from India?
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Staffan Olsson
Send me a email and we can discuss further.
Ihlberg at gmail com
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Staffan Olsson I didn't hear back from you. Please send me an email if you're still interested
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Van Dr. Kaeberlein and Dr. Green for dinner in NY
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Dr. Green is a Doctors; Doctor! If we ever develop an Award he should be the first to receive it! Perhaps the RAAD Fest Award.
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Dear all, here is an update on my learning journey of ordering Sirolimus and dasatinib from a Chinese supplier (see earlier posts). The substances have arrived in Germany and are now stuck at customs (TNT is the transportation company). Now TNT wants me to fill out several forms where I need to declare the nature of the substances and their intended uses. And I need to provide a payment receipt from my account. None of this off course matches the documentation provided by the supplier. It looks like if you are ordering from Germany you may be out of luck. The Chinese supplier has been very nice and supportive throughout - they promised to provide me an alternative delivery free of charge if this one does not go through. More soon!
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Chris Los Have had 2 shipments of rapa powder from China without a problem here in Spain. Number 1 thing is to pay for Fedex shipping, nothing else will work past customs. Supplier should know this, if not then they are inexperienced. Fedex is business shipping samples. Fedex cost me 50 euros and worth every dime.
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Chris Los
I’m very sorry to hear that, Chris. I didn’t have any problems in USA with my USPS shipment.
I have had no luck so far finding a lab that will test my rapa powder. Here in the U.S., the labs aren’t interested in small consumer jobs, quoted informally $2500 to do a simple % test.
Indian labs were reasonable but none have yet expressed a willingness to work with a small sample. One lab wanted a minimum sample size of 10grams. Indiamart.com website is helpful in identifying possible resources and I'll keep looking. Chinese labs are also reportedly inexpensive but I haven’t found a similar platform in China.
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chuck stanley Great news - my shipment was released by customs and arrived at my home! The Chinese company that chuck recommended was outstanding all the way through, updating me every day...:-).
Will start with a 2 day 100mg dasatinib and 2g Fisetin on Monday. Week after I will start with 3mg Sirolimus once a week and increase the dosis by 1g every 2 weeks up to a dosis of 6mg. At the 4mg dosis I will do a first blood test to see if the lab picks up sirolimus and to get approximate blood levels. I will also start with a topical application.
Thanks to all of you for the great encouragement and advice! May we live long and prosper....:-)
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Chris Los that makes my day!
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Chris Los ! The only reasons for other types of communication is my being cautios about totally unencrypted forums like this one (that's why I favour Protonmail and Signal - only sometimes). I received the attached (heading removed) letter in my mailbox from customs about a parcel containing Rapamycin, which made me give up both on the delivery (I asked them to kindly throw it out - there was little choice in the form) and on the country in this respect; I'd like to know if the forms you received were just as severe. This goes together with a talk with a customs officer about supplements, where I learned that even supplements can be regarded as medicines if they are good for you. I then discovered that even between EU countries this kind of item would be checked for - hopefully just by the Postzollamt. I've been thinking of relocating to your country instead of the UK lately as I've come across a real possibility of buying Rapa and Dasatinib there - although at the high price. My payment came back because there was no invoice. I could not implement other forms of payment, so the only way would have been travelling backwards and forwards a long way, which recently I don't feel like doing by myself. At any rate here is the 2020 form which I wish to make a comparison with.
If you know of a physical like-minded group in any location in our two countries I'd be very interested. Thanks for your patience!!!
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My senior dog has been on Rapamycin for about a year. Since then, his early stage kidney disease has practically vanished, and he has so much energy!! He’s spunky and doing very well, but his Lipase Levels in blood tests have been steadily rising since on Rapamycin and is now in the hundreds. His Alk. Phos. is rising, too, also very high. This could be a complete coincidence. Anyone else have such an experience? My local vet started him on a very high dose of Rapamycin (3 mg. X 3 weekly), but I have now lowered that to half. Wondering if I should lower it any further. Otherwise, he shows no outward negative side-effects, and Rapamycin has been a completely positive experience for him. I wish I had his energy! Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.
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Paula Marie Dr. Matt Kaeberlein is dosing the dogs at .15 rapa per kg. once a week in dog project. Was doing 3 x week, but changed
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Van Thats very interesting. I thought 3x was a bit too aggressive. So did he change the dose to compensate?
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Van Van Thank you so very much for your reply! I didn’t realize Matt Kaeberlein changed the dose. I’ll do the same with my dog. Thanks again! Looks like my dog was over-dosed, he’s 60 lbs. He acts real healthy ever since then, I just wonder if the Rapamycin affected the Lipase/Alk.Phos.levels or not. They are still elevated and rising.
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Fred Cloud My vet knew nothing about Rapamycin. I asked him for it, as my dog was sick and in early-stage kidney disease. My vet made me sign a waiver, and that was the dose he prescribed. I had to get the Rapamycin elsewhere. So, I gave my 60 pound dog 3 mg. Rapamycin (three times weekly) for two months, with a one month rest period, then for another month. He became a super dog! Running around like he did five years ago. His kidney counts went back to normal, as mentioned, but his Alk.Phos. and Lipase had very slight elevations. After that (even off the Rapamycin) they steadily began to rise and are now in the hundreds. My vet suspected Cushings Disease even before the Rapamycin, so the Rapamycin could just be coincidental. I think you’re right in saying I gave him too aggressive of a dose though. He feels much better now than before, though, despite the lab results. Still, I’m worried that they keep rising. Hope I didn’t damage his pancreas or liver.
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Paula Marie Glad to hear he is feeling better.
Did the doc say he could treat the Cushings?
I think there are some meds.
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Fred Cloud
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Fred Cloud Actually, I did some online research, and there is much scientific evidence that Melatonin supplement can help Cushings Disease. I’m going to try that, since he has so much energy since on Rapamycin, that he doesn’t always want to go to sleep sometimes at night! So the Melatonin should work nicely! The medical treatment seems aggressive (one medication purposely destroys part of the adrenal glands) and it requires expensive and consistent follow-up; it is actually a form of chemo). Just hope his blood counts return to normal, he’s my best friend!
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Paula Marie Everything you need to know. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vsNw-OCciU
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Van Thank you, Van, it was an interesting video.
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Paula Marie don't have any data for a dog, but my kidney function improved greatly on rapamycin while Alk Phos did not change
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What’s your dogs weight? Thanks John
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John Mcgough He’s about 63 pounds
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