Peptides / Semax / Australia

Semax in Australia

Legal status, what it is, and the listed suppliers in Australia that list it.

Legal status in Australia

Not an approved medicine. Not listed by name in the Poisons Standard (June 2026).

As understood at 2026-09-22. Verify with the TGA.

What Semax is

Semax is a synthetic seven-amino-acid peptide built from a fragment of ACTH, the adrenocorticotropic hormone, with a three-amino-acid tail added to slow its breakdown. It was developed in Russia, where it is used clinically in stroke care; the clinical studies below were run there. It is not an approved medicine in the UK, US or Australia.

Full Semax page: targets and research →

Clinical Research

The efficacy of semax in the treatment of patients at different stages of ischemic stroke
Gusev EI, Martynov MY, Kostenko EV, et al. (2018). Zhurnal nevrologii i psikhiatrii im. S.S. Korsakova. human 110 people after ischaemic stroke (43 men, 67 women, mean age 58), split by early or late rehabilitation and by whether semax was given
The peptide semax affects the expression of genes related to the immune and vascular systems in rat brain focal ischemia: genome-wide transcriptional analysis
Medvedeva EV, Dmitrieva VG, Povarova OV, et al. (2014). BMC Genomics. animal rats with permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion, cortex sampled at 3 and 24 hours
Semax peptide targets the mu opioid receptor gene Oprm1 to promote deubiquitination and functional recovery after spinal cord injury in female mice
Liu R, Chen Y, Huang H, et al. (2025). British Journal of Pharmacology. animal female C57BL/6 mice with induced spinal cord injury, plus a PC12 cell neuroinflammation model
Semax, a Synthetic Regulatory Peptide, Affects Copper-Induced Abeta Aggregation and Amyloid Formation in Artificial Membrane Models
Sciacca MFM, Naletova I, Giuffrida ML, Attanasio F (2022). ACS Chemical Neuroscience. in-vitro artificial membrane models and cell viability assays; no animals or people