RESEARCH CARDARINE 10MG

Cardarine in the UK: buying, legal status and what to check

Cardarine is the common name for GW-501516, also written GW1516 or GSK-516 and sometimes sold as Endurobol. Buying it in the UK raises two questions: what its legal position is, and how to tell a genuine listing from a guess. The compound is not a licensed medicine in the United Kingdom, it is not an authorised food supplement ingredient, and it has never held a marketing authorisation anywhere. It is supplied by FreeMuscle LTD of Scunthorpe as a research chemical to adults aged 18 or over for laboratory use. It is not a controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, but it is on the WADA Prohibited List, which matters to anyone subject to anti-doping rules.

A trustworthy UK listing shows the stated strength per capsule, the number of capsules, a batch number printed on the pack, and a certificate of analysis for that batch rather than a generic PDF. It ships in plain packaging with tracked delivery, and it does not publish a human dosing schedule. This listing meets each point: 10 mg per capsule, 60 capsules, a batch number on the pack, and a Janoshik Analytical certificate for every batch, sent on request by email. A 5 mg Free Muscle strength is tested in the same way. Free tracked UK delivery is included, EU delivery takes three to seven working days, and unopened items can be returned within 30 days. Details are on the shipping and guarantee pages.

Cardarine is not a SARM. It does not bind the androgen receptor and it is not a peptide, despite searches such as "cardarine peptide" and its frequent listing next to SARMs. It is a small synthetic molecule that activates PPAR-delta, a nuclear receptor involved in fatty-acid metabolism.

Capsules compared with other forms

GW-501516 is sold as capsules, as a liquid suspension in a dropper bottle, and as raw powder. A capsule holds a weighed fill, so the quantity in each unit is fixed at manufacture and can be checked against the batch certificate. A liquid depends on the solvent, on how evenly the compound stays suspended, and on how accurately a dropper is read; a settled bottle can deliver very different amounts from the top and the bottom. Raw powder requires an analytical balance to weigh milligram quantities with any confidence.

Stability also differs. GW-501516 is a lipophilic solid that is relatively stable when kept dry and away from light; in solution it is exposed to solvent, oxygen and light for the life of the bottle. None of this says anything about what the compound does in a person, and no route of administration has a completed human efficacy trial behind it. The capsule form is preferred here because its contents can be assayed and stated on a certificate.

Cardarine compared with SR9009

Cardarine and SR9009 (Stenabolic) are often searched together because both are marketed as metabolic compounds, but mechanistically they are unrelated. GW-501516 is an agonist of PPAR-delta, a receptor that regulates genes for fatty-acid oxidation in muscle and liver. SR9009 is a synthetic agonist of REV-ERB, a nuclear receptor that is part of the circadian clock and represses gene transcription. The evidence base is also different in kind. GW-501516 reached phase II human trials for dyslipidaemia before development was abandoned over rodent carcinogenicity findings, so there are small, short human studies. SR9009 has rodent and cell data only, and no published human trial.

On regulation the two are in the same position: neither is a licensed medicine or an authorised supplement in the UK or EU, and both are prohibited in sport. GW-501516 is named under section S4 as a PPAR-delta agonist; SR9009 is not named, but as a substance with no approval for human use it falls under section S0, non-approved substances. Neither has an established safety profile in humans. The SR9009 range is listed at /collections/sr9009.

Reading the certificate of analysis for this product

The Janoshik Analytical certificate for a batch of Free Muscle Cardarine carries several fields. Identity confirms that the material is GW-501516 and not something else, typically by comparing an HPLC retention time and a mass spectrum against a reference standard. Purity is the proportion of the assayed material that is the named compound, reported as a percentage; the balance is unidentified peaks, residual solvent or degradation products. Content or assay states how much compound was found per capsule, which is the figure to compare with the 10 mg on the label. The batch number ties the certificate to the pack in your hand and should match the label exactly. The test date tells you how old the result is.

A certificate with no batch number, no test date or no named laboratory is not a batch certificate, and a certificate for a different batch tells you about that batch, not yours. Free Muscle sends the certificate for the batch you hold on request by email; quote the product name and the batch number from the pack via the contact page. Our guide to reading a certificate of analysis and the lab tests page explain the format in more detail.

Detection, sport and testing

GW-501516 was added to the WADA Prohibited List in January 2009, initially as a gene doping substance, and is now listed under S4, hormone and metabolic modulators, as a PPAR-delta agonist. It is prohibited at all times, in and out of competition. Doping-control laboratories characterised two major urinary metabolites, a sulfoxide and a sulfone, and described a validated urine screening method with a detection limit of 0.1 ng/ml for routine doping control (Thevis 2010). The compound is therefore detectable in urine; the verified literature we cite does not give a detection window, so we describe it as detectable with a window not established. Anyone subject to anti-doping rules should treat any product on this page as prohibited.

Storage, stability and handling

Keep the bottle sealed, in a cool, dry place, out of direct light and away from heat sources. Reseal it promptly after opening, because humidity degrades capsule shells and their contents. Do not decant into unlabelled containers, and keep the batch number with the material so the certificate can always be matched to it. Store out of reach of children and pets. Handle as a laboratory chemical: wash hands after contact, avoid creating dust if a capsule is opened, and dispose of unwanted material through a chemical waste route rather than household bins or drains.

What the published research reports

Published human data are limited to small studies lasting two weeks. In one, 24 healthy volunteers were hospitalised and sedentary throughout; HDL cholesterol rose in the GW-501516 groups while it fell with placebo, and triglyceride clearance after a fat meal improved, although fasting triglycerides changed only as a non-significant trend (Sprecher 2007). In a two-week parallel-group study of moderately overweight men, six per group, fasting triglycerides, apolipoprotein B, LDL cholesterol and liver fat fell compared with baseline, while HDL cholesterol did not change (Risérus 2008). In mice, GW-501516 given alongside exercise training increased running endurance and shifted muscle gene expression, but the drug alone in sedentary mice did not (Narkar 2008). A 2014 review of PPAR agonists records that development of GW-501516 was abandoned because of safety issues (Sahebkar 2014). The issue was the finding of tumours at several sites in long-term rodent carcinogenicity studies, after which the developer halted the programme. The human studies were tiny, lasted a fortnight and measured blood markers, not performance, body composition or long-term safety. None of this is a claim about the product on this page.

Glossary

• PPAR-delta: peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta, a nuclear receptor that switches on genes for fatty-acid oxidation.
• Agonist: a molecule that binds a receptor and activates it.
• Metabolic modulator: the WADA S4 category covering compounds that alter energy metabolism, including PPAR-delta agonists.
• SARM: selective androgen receptor modulator; cardarine is not one.
• Certificate of analysis (COA): a laboratory report giving identity, purity and content for a specific batch.
• HPLC: high-performance liquid chromatography, the separation method used to measure purity.
• LC-MS: liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry, used to confirm identity by molecular mass.
• Batch number: the code printed on the pack that links it to one production run and one certificate.
• Carcinogenicity study: a long-term animal study looking for tumour formation; the reason GW-501516 development stopped.

Related compounds and reading

• All Cardarine (GW-501516) brands and SR9009 (Stenabolic), the compound it is most often compared with.
• SARMs, the androgen receptor compounds cardarine is confused with, and the CUT category.
• Every Free Muscle-brand product, each batch assayed by Janoshik Analytical.
• Cardarine (GW-501516): what happened in development
• What are SARMs? The 2026 research guide
• How to read a certificate of analysis and What is Janoshik Analytical?
• Price per milligram: the only honest way to compare SARMs and peptides

References

• Sprecher DL, et al. Triglyceride:high-density lipoprotein cholesterol effects in healthy subjects administered a peroxisome proliferator activated receptor delta agonist. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2007;27(2):359-365. PMID: 17110604.
• Risérus U, et al. Activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)delta promotes reversal of multiple metabolic abnormalities, reduces oxidative stress, and increases fatty acid oxidation in moderately obese men. Diabetes. 2008;57(2):332-339. PMID: 18024853.
• Narkar VA, et al. AMPK and PPARdelta agonists are exercise mimetics. Cell. 2008;134(3):405-415. PMID: 18674809.
• Thevis M, et al. Characterization of two major urinary metabolites of the PPARdelta-agonist GW1516 and implementation of the drug in routine doping controls. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2010;396(7):2479-2491. PMID: 19946680.
• Sahebkar A, Chew GT, Watts GF. New peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor agonists: potential treatments for atherogenic dyslipidemia and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Expert Opin Pharmacother. 2014;15(4):493-503. PMID: 24428677.

Cardarine (GW-501516) is supplied for laboratory research use only. It is not a licensed medicine and has not been evaluated by the MHRA, EMA or FDA. Not for human consumption. Adults aged 18 and over only. Nothing on this page is medical or dosing advice.