Is IGF-1 LR3 legal in Australia? Poisons Standard, TGA and WADA records

Is IGF-1 LR3 legal in Australia?

The records give no simple answer. The Poisons Standard is the national list that sorts medicines and poisons into groups called schedules. It has no entry that names IGF-1 LR3. It does have a group entry, INSULIN-LIKE GROWTH FACTORS, in Schedule 4 and in Appendix D, clause 5. Whether that group entry covers this analogue is not settled. The October 2026 version of the list (F2026L01327) was checked on 16 October 2026. That check does not support saying IGF-1 LR3 is Schedule 4. It also does not support saying IGF-1 LR3 is unscheduled.

Answering the question needs a lawyer who reads the current list and the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989. The Australian peptide law guide explains the layers. As the TGA notes, state and territory laws may add further controls.

Is IGF-1 LR3 in the Poisons Standard?

IGF-1 LR3 is not named on its own in the October 2026 Poisons Standard. The list, dated 28 September 2026, has two related entries in Schedule 4. One is INSULIN-LIKE GROWTH FACTOR I. The other is INSULIN-LIKE GROWTH FACTORS, except when separately specified in this Schedule. The list also names INSULIN-LIKE GROWTH FACTORS in Appendix D, clause 5. A text search found neither LR3 nor Long R3. Whether the group entry, or the rules on derivatives, cover this analogue is a legal question this page does not answer. A missing name does not mean a substance is unscheduled.

Schedule 4 is the group for prescription-only medicines. What Schedule 4 and Appendix D mean explains both. A missing name is not permission, because group headings and rules on derivatives (substances made from a listed one) can cover things that are not named. The check is narrow: it finds named entries, and nothing more.

Mecasermin, the approved IGF-1 medicine, is a separate matter. The entry for insulin-like growth factor I covers the human hormone, and that entry does not decide the status of the analogue.

Is IGF-1 LR3 on the ARTG, and has the TGA issued a warning?

The TGA records checked do not confirm that any IGF-1 LR3 product is registered. The TGA's peptide advisory, a public notice dated 13 April 2026, does not name IGF-1 LR3. The ARTG, the national register of medicines and other health products, lists the mecasermin product Increlex as entry 308494. Its sponsor is Asteri Pharma Pty Ltd, and it was registered on 22 November 2019. That record is for mecasermin. It does not approve IGF-1 LR3. The records checked were not a full search of the register, so they cannot prove that no related registration exists.

The advisory says the TGA has not assessed unapproved peptide products for safety, quality or effectiveness. It gives BPC-157, GHK-Cu, TB-500, retatrutide and CJC-1295 as examples. It also says a research-use-only label alone does not make supply lawful (TGA advisory, 13 April 2026). It adds that state and territory laws may set extra controls on the sale, supply and possession of unapproved peptide products.

The TGA topic page Peptide products, last updated 23 September 2026 and read on 16 October 2026, does not name IGF-1 LR3 either. Anyone can search the register on the TGA's ARTG page.

Is IGF-1 LR3 banned in sport?

The WADA 2026 Prohibited List came into force on 1 January 2026. WADA is the World Anti-Doping Agency. Under S2.3, Growth Factors and Growth Factor Modulators, the list bans insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1, mecasermin) and its analogues at all times, in and out of competition. The list does not print the letters LR3. IGF-1 LR3 is an analogue of IGF-1, so the analogue wording is read to cover it. That reading is drawn from the list text. It does not decide any single athlete's case.

The list marks every substance in class S2 as a non-Specified Substance. WADA publishes a new list each year, so a later list may differ from the 2026 text quoted here. Sport rules are separate from the Poisons Standard and from TGA approval. The guide to peptides and drug tests covers how testing relates to the list.

Anti-doping labs have published ways to detect the analogue. A 2021 study checked a method for LongR3-IGF-I, Des(1-3)-IGF-I and R3-IGF-I. The method first pulls the molecules out with antibodies, then identifies them with high-resolution mass spectrometry. The team tested it in rats. The authors describe the three analogues as banned in sport and never approved for use in humans. This is a lab and rat result, and it does not state any person's status.

Evidence limits

What do these records not settle?

A missing approval, a group entry and a seller's label are three different facts. The research-use-only wording on a vial is the seller's statement of intent. The TGA has said that such wording alone does not change a product's regulatory status (TGA advisory, 13 April 2026). The Western Australian layer is set out in the Western Australian law guide.