What is ARA-290 (Cibinetide)? What it does, benefits and what the evidence shows

ARA-290, also called cibinetide, is an 11-amino-acid peptide engineered from a piece of erythropoietin (EPO), the hormone that tells your body to make red blood cells. It was designed to keep EPO's tissue-protecting effects without the red-blood-cell effect. Its best human evidence is a handful of Phase 2 trials in nerve damage from sarcoidosis and type 2 diabetes, where symptoms and nerve-fiber measures improved, and a small eye trial that did not show a benefit. It is not an approved drug anywhere we could find, and we found no Phase 3 trial.

What ARA-290 is and how it works

EPO protects tissue in a range of injury models, but its red-blood-cell effects are a problem when you only want the repair side. Researchers argued that the two jobs use different receptors: red-cell production runs through a pair of EPO receptors, while tissue protection runs through a complex of the EPO receptor and a second protein called CD131 (Brines et al., PNAS, 2008; the idea first appeared in Brines et al., PNAS, 2004). In that 2008 paper the same group showed that an 11-amino-acid stretch from the surface of EPO's helix B was tissue-protective in rodent models of stroke and kidney injury, sped wound healing in rodents, and was not erythropoietic in vitro or in vivo (Brines et al., PNAS, 2008). ARA-290 comes from this line of work; a later paper describes it as a nonhematopoietic peptide designed from the structure of erythropoietin (Brines et al., Molecular Medicine, 2015). Cibinetide is the drug name used in later trials.

The 2013 sarcoidosis paper describes it as engineered to activate the "innate repair receptor," which it says antagonizes inflammatory processes and stimulates tissue repair (Dahan et al., 2013). That description comes from the developers' own research group, and much of the human work came from that group and its sponsor, Araim Pharmaceuticals, so independent replication is thin.

ARA-290 is a peptide, not a small molecule, and it is a fragment inspired by EPO, not EPO itself. The rodent findings above are why researchers tried it on nerve damage. They do not prove it works in people.

What people use it for

What the research actually shows

Sarcoidosis nerve damage: the strongest signal, in small trials

Sarcoidosis can damage the small nerve fibers that carry pain and temperature signals, causing pain and autonomic problems. In a blinded, placebo-controlled trial, patients with documented small-fiber loss who received ARA-290 had significantly improved neuropathic symptoms, a significant increase in corneal small-fiber density, changes in temperature sensitivity and better exercise capacity on a walking test than the comparison group (Dahan et al., 2013). The abstract does not give the sample size, and the treatment period was 28 days.

A larger Phase 2b trial randomized 64 people with sarcoidosis-associated small-fiber loss and neuropathic pain to one of three doses or placebo. The primary endpoint was change in corneal nerve fiber area, a measurement of nerve health. The middle dose produced a statistically significant placebo-corrected increase of 697 square micrometers (95% CI 159 to 1,236; P = 0.012). The highest dose did not reach significance (431; CI -130 to 992), and neither did the lowest dose (109; CI -429 to 647). Pain scores improved in all groups, and in the subgroup with moderate-to-severe pain the placebo-corrected pain result at the middle dose was not statistically significant (P = 0.157). The authors concluded that the nerve findings were "consistent with a disease modifying effect" (Culver et al., Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, 2017). The registry lists the sponsor as Araim Pharmaceuticals and the trial as completed (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02039687).

So the fair reading is that there is a repeated signal on nerve-fiber measures, but an uneven dose response and pain results that are not clean. It is promising, and it has not been confirmed in a pivotal trial.

Type 2 diabetes: metabolic and pain signals in a Phase 2 study

In a Phase 2 study of people with type 2 diabetes and painful neuropathy, ARA-290 improved hemoglobin A1c and lipid profiles over the 56-day observation period, and neuropathic symptoms measured by a standard questionnaire improved significantly. Participants whose corneal nerve density was already reduced showed an increase compared with no change on placebo. The authors reported that no potential safety issues were identified and that the drug "deserves continued clinical evaluation" (Brines et al., 2015).

Diabetic macular edema: no improvement in vision

A single-arm Phase 2 trial in Belfast, with no placebo group, gave cibinetide to 9 people with diabetic macular edema, 8 of whom finished. There was no improvement in visual acuity, retinal thickness, retinal sensitivity or tear production on average, although questionnaire scores rose slightly and some participants improved on individual measures. No serious adverse events or antibodies to the peptide were seen (Lois et al., 2020). The registry lists that trial as terminated, giving the reason as expiry of the study drug with no replacement available (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06626971).

Beyond neuropathy

The claims you will see online for healing, brain function and anti-aging trace back to rodent work and mechanism, such as the 2008 paper above. We did not find a human trial supporting them. A registry entry exists for a study of cognitive effects at Leiden University Medical Center, but we did not find published results, so we have not used it.

Side effects and risks

In the trials above, the authors reported no safety concerns: no potential safety issues in the diabetes study, and no serious adverse events or anti-drug antibodies in the eye trial. Those trials were small and short. They do not tell you about long-term use or about what happens after months of repeated use. The 2015 paper itself notes that EPO's "serious side effects limit its potential clinical use," which is the reason this peptide was designed, but no long-term human study shows the redesigned fragment avoids them. Immune reactions to a peptide over long use are also an open question, and among the abstracts we read only the eye trial reports checking for antibodies.

The grey-market risks are the practical ones: the vial may not contain what the label says, and this compound has almost no independent lab data behind it.

What the lab tests show

As of September 29, 2026, our database contains 2 vials sold as ARA-290, both from a single vendor and both covered by one lab report from July 2026. Both measured about 99.2% to 99.4% pure. Both also measured about 27% over the labeled amount. Neither vial met our failure definition (empty, under 95% pure, more than 20% under label or more than 50% over), because 27% over is below our 50% overfill threshold.

That is one report, one vendor and two vials, so treat it as a single data point. It does show that a vial can be pure and still hold noticeably more peptide than labeled, which is a reason to have a quantity test done. We don't have enough lab data on ARA-290 to rank vendors for it, so here are the highest-ranked vendors across all compounds right now. A vendor's overall record is a signal, not a guarantee for a compound they have never had tested.

Buying smarter

Check whether any vendor has a record for this compound on our ARA-290 results page before you rely on a general reputation. A posted certificate of analysis is a starting point, not proof; how to read a peptide COA and fake peptide COAs cover what to check.

With this little independent data, ordering your own test is the strongest move. How to get a peptide tested walks through identity, purity and quantity testing, and endotoxin in research peptides covers when the add-on is worth it.

If your report fails, stop using that batch, tell anyone who bought from the same run, bring the report to the vendor, and submit it to VendorVerify. If you are comparing ARA-290 with other repair-focused peptides, see our guides to SS-31, BPC-157 and GHK-Cu, or browse the peptide hub.

Database figures are from independent lab reports in VendorVerify as of September 29, 2026. This isn't medical advice. ARA-290 (cibinetide) is an investigational compound with no approved use that we could find, and vials sold as ARA-290 are sold for research use only.