../#calcifediol-lab-agri

This is close to 100% pure powder.  It is probably not officially licensed for human pharmaceutical use, but it will be fine.   Each person only needs ~~1 milligram (see my 14 microgram per kg bodyweight suggestion above for a one-off emergency dose), so there can't be any contaminant in that tiny quantity which could cause any trouble.

You will need some way of diluting it - such as in another powder or perhaps oil - and then dividing the resulting mixture into masses of 100mg or more - something which can be reliably weighed - to get the desired amount, which is likely to be in the order of 1mg of calcifediol for adults. This would be tricky for most people.

Here are a few sources I found.  Pricing varies a lot with quantity.  The prices below do not include shipping.  It is possible you might need to provide some reason to obtain these products, but probably not since calcifediol is a laboratory reagent, not a volatile liquid, explosive, drug of addiction etc.

• APExBIO, Houston and Boston USA: https://www.apexbt.com/calcifediol.html   25mg for USD$330 = USD$13.20 per milligram.   100mg USD$980 = USD$9.80 per milligram.
  
  
• Toronto Research Chemicals in Canada:   https://www.trc-canada.com/product-detail/?C125700
  1mg USD$55 per milligram, USD$745 for 250mg = USD$2.98 per milligram.
  
  
• AbMole  Houston, Brussels and Shanghai: http://www.abmole.com/products/calcifediol.html 5mg for USD$115 = USD$23 per milligram.  50mg for USD$780 = USD$15.60 per milligram.
  
  

This section contemplates the use of agricultural animal nutritional supplements for human use.  This is contrary to the specification of the product and the intention of the manufacturer.  Such use may also be contrary to various laws, principles, professional misconduct insurance requirements etc. etc. etc.  If any of this gives you a headache, please read no further.

What follows are suggestions of an electronic technician for acquiring, in a 5kg pail, for about USD$100 plus shipping, sufficient calcifediol to raise the 25OHD levels of 1500 or so people to 50ng/ml or more, within a few hours, for the purposes of enabling their immune system cells to function properly (at least in respect of their autocrine and paracrine signaling) and so have a good chance of suppressing SARS-CoV-2 infection and avoiding the excessively inflammatory responses which are the primary or sole cause of severe COVID-19, Kawasaki disease and Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome.

I also suggest that the contents of each pail could provide good levels of vitamin D supplementation for about 285 person years, at a cost which is lower than any normal pharma-grade D3 arrangement, but probably not lower than using feed grade D3.

The DSM Hy-D product page: https://www.dsm.com/anh/en_US/products/vitamins/hy-d.html does not have specific details of this or any other Hy-D products.

I searched high and low before I found this source of calcifediol online, in-stock, with price.  Please let me know if you find any more.  See below for a liquid form, also  available for online ordering - but actually not available.

• Animal Health Product Distributors, in Airdrie, 28km north of Calgary, Alberta, Canada: https://www.ahpd.ca/product/hy-d-ws-5kg/   DSM Hy-D Water Soluble (HY-D WS) 5kg for CAD$124.99 ~=USD$100.  Each kg contains 375mg calcifediol, so the pail contains 1.875 grams of calcifediol.  This powder is 0.0375% calcifediol.  Not counting shipping, this is USD$0.0533 per milligram - good value, since a milligram could save a life.
  
  2021-03-26: Since they only ship to Canadian destinations, and expect the billing address to be in Canada as well, I tried ordering this via the Buy it For Me service of Canadian Package Forwarder  https://ShipByMail.com .  2021-04-07: However, they did not proceed with the purchase since they found that they would need to fill in special customs forms to send this product to Australia.
  
  The active ingredients are listed on the label as "375mg 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 per kg, Citric Acid.   The "guaranteed analysis" per kg is "Vitamin D3 (min) 15,000,000 IU".  However this product does not contain cholecalciferol, which is the usual, specific, meaning  of "Vitamin D3".  Each gram of cholecalciferol is 40,000,000 IU, so the above figure of 15,000,000 IU is just treating this calcifediol as if were cholecalciferol.  There is no recognised IU (International Unit) mass quantity for calcifediol.  1ug of calcifediol is likely to raise 25OHD levels of humans about as much as (very approximately) 2 to 3 to 4 or 5ug cholecalciferol.  I guess 4 - see the discussion above.  If so, then 1ug of calcifediol would raise 25OHD levels about as much as 4ug cholecalciferol, which is 100 IU.  On the basis of this guesstimate, the pail's contents would be  able to raise 25OHD about as much as 7.5 grams of D3.  (The ex-factory cost of pharma-grade D3 is around USD$2.50 in 1kg lots.)  This is 2.25 billion IU.
  
  The same product may be available in 25kg bags. Please let me know if this can be purchased online or from distributor shelves.  See below for a liquid form of the same product, which is somewhat more concentrated.
  

This powder is intended to be mixed into water and then further diluted into the water feed for chickens and turkeys and pigs.   2.66 grams of this powder, I guess about a teaspoon full, will provide 1mg calcifediol - and it was 0.532mg which made such a difference in Cordoba.

This powder is 0.000375 = 0.0375% calcifediol.  The Fortaro tablets are 0.0067% calcifediol, so 15 grams of these tablets provide 1 milligram of calcifediol.   The powder in this pail is 5.6 times as concentrated as the Fortaro tablets.  



While my interest in calcifediol was solely for its use as a one-off dose to raise circulating 25OHD levels in a few hours, to healthy levels in the 50 to 100ng/ml range, when people really need it, such as when at risk of, or suffering, severe COVID-19, sepsis, Kawasaki disease or Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome.

However, the low cost of this powder makes me consider other uses:  To what extent would this be a good alternative to D3 for long-term supplementation?   I am thinking theoretically and am ignoring whatever concerns their might be supplying agricultural animal nutritional supplements to humans.  I imagine some or many doctors running as hard as they can in the opposite direction from such a suggestion, in part due to fear they may be referred to as a (sound emitted by duck).  

However, if I was a doctor - or even if I wasn't - and I was in some area where people were dying and/or being seriously harmed by COVID-19 (and long COVID can begin after a relatively mild illness, so everyone is at risk) and I could obtain a product like this, in 5kg or more quantities, I would then be in a position to distributed it to lots of needy people, as a one-off intervention, for trivial cost per dose.

But rather than wait until people become sick, or were reasonably suspected of being infected with COVID-19, it would be better to supplement as many people as possible to get their 25OHD levels up to 50ng/ml or so at least, for their general health and to ensure their immune cells have enough 25OHD if and when they get COVID-19.   Since neither vaccination and/or prior infection provide reliable protection from further infections, especially with one of the increasing number of new variants: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/#update-2021-01-31 this means the entire population is at risk.

To get a person's 25OHD level up within hours, with this generally lasting for days or a week or so (see the patent graph above) I guess a one-of dose 14ug calcifediol per kg bodyweight would do the trick, no matter how low the person's level was before this.     (Only if a person's level was close to or beyond whatever level for them results in hypercalcemia or hypercalciuria would this one-of dose cause any problems.   Such levels might be as low as 150ng/ml for some people.  So assuming the person had not already been overdoing D3 supplementation, this one-off dose would do no harm, and in many cases would provide decisive benefits if and when the person is infected with COVID-19.

But what about using this inexpensive material for long-term supplementation, as an alternative to D3 capsules or powder?  D3 alternatives include, for a 70kg adult, one 5000 IU cap a day or, for instance, one 50,000 IU capsule a week (7143 IU a day).  See https://vitamindstopscovid.info/01-supp/ for my ideas on D3 supplemental intake quantities as a ratio of bodyweight.

There is no precise conversion between calcifediol and D3 (cholecalciferol) regarding  long-term 25OHD levels.   I guess the ratio is around 4:1 - meaning that 100ug of calcifediol will raise 25OHD levels about as much as 400ug (1000 IU) of D3.

Ignoring uncertainties about the actual potency of the above product (which would depend to some degree on how long it has been stored for, and at what temperature) and regarding the possibly somewhat higher nonavailability's of the Faes Farma 0.266mg calcifediol in oil capsules compared to this dry powder (best take this powder at the end of a meal with significant fats) here are some thoughts on how much of this material would be needed to raise a 70kg adult's 25OHD levels to a healthy 50ng/ml or so.  Depending on the research article cited, I think that 5000 IU a day D3 in average weight adults raises 25OHD levels to the 50 to 60ng/ml range, which is what we should aim for in a population average.

If we assume a 4:1 ratio, then instead of 0.125mg (5000 IU) D3 per day, we would only need 0.031mg calcifediol per day.  Since the cost (ex-shipping) of Hy-D WS is 5.33 US cents per milligram, this is 0.17 US cents per day.

Another angle is to look at this research from Spain, which used a single Faes Farma Hidroferol capsule every two weeks or every month:



This article and some similar studies which are cited in it have these results, all with people suffering from osteoporosis:

The researchers decided that 0.266mg once a month gave the 25OHD levels they were happiest with.   I think the 0.266mg every 14 or 15 days gave a more desirable result.

Sidebar on frequency of D3 or calcifediol supplementary intakes:



From this I conclude provisionally that 0.266mg every 15 days gives us the 25OHD levels we want, at least in these older people.  This is 0.018mg calcifediol per day, which is 0.096 US cents a day.  (This implies a calcifediol to cholecalciferol effectiveness ratio of about 0.125 / 0.018 = 7:1 which is a lot more than the 4:1 I guesstimated above.)

This low a cost would be hard to beat with D3 capsules - though remember I am discussing a powder, which someone needs to measure and dispense in quantities and frequencies roughly according to bodyweight - so there are extra costs, which need not be very high.

For D3 capsules for developed nations, 50,000 IU capsules, such as one a week is a good approach.  The 1.25mg 50,000IU D3 capsules Tina and I use cost USD$30 for 100 capsules, so this is 4.285 cents a day.  Other companies make similar products at somewhat lower prices.

Scouring Alibaba for the cheapest bulk prices on 5,000 IU D3 capsules I found one supplier (MOQ = minimum order quantity) 30,000 capsules USD$11.42 per thousand capsules.  One of these a day is 1.142 US cents a day.  D3 diluted in powder is available there too, but the prices are all over the place, so for comparison I used a US supplement supplier.  Note that this is pharma grade D3, and I am comparing it animal feed grade calcifediol - though I have no reason to think there is anything technically deficient or dangerous in this particular DSM product.


20kg of 0.25% (1/400th strength) D3 powder costs USD$1050.  This is 50 grams of D3 = 2,000,000,000 IU which could provide 400,000 5000IU daily doses.  Such a dose with this material would cost 0.265 cents per day.   Feed grade D3 diluted powder would be less expensive, I am sure, but I haven't found a price.

On the above assumption - a 7:1 effectiveness ratio, one 5kg pail (total mass with packing would be 6 or 7 kg) of this Hy-D WS powder would provide 104,167 days of supplementation for 70kg adults to the ~50ng/ml level.  This is 285 person years.

Using the abovementioned D3 powder to provide the same number of daily doses would be 104,167 * 0.125mg * 400 = 5.2kg.  So Hy-D WS has no inherent weight or compactness advantage over this common 1/400 concentration D3 powder.  The D3 in feed grade powder has not been refined as much as that in the pharma grade, but I am not sure how much that matters to humans or non-human animals.  My guess is that this difference would cause no significant health effects.

So it seems that DSM Hy-D Water Soluble would be cost-completive for long-term supplementation compared with all pharma grade D3 products, including raw powder, but probably not compared to feed grade D3 powder.

Disadvantages include:


Advantages include:


Perhaps this would be of interest to people in developing countries, or to those in developed countries whose medical systems are not up to speed on the need for vitamin D levels of 50ng/ml or so, and which either will not or cannot provide sufficient (1mg is not much) calcifediol when unsupplemented people contract COVID-19.

It may provide cost advantages for long-term supplementation over pharma grade D3 capsules and raw powder, but probably not over feed grade D3 powder.

If this powder was to be used for my suggested arrangement (above) of 14ug per kg bodyweight single dose to rapidly boost 25OHD levels in emergencies, then here is some guidance: