Head to head
ARA-290 vs Larazotide
Side-by-side on inflammation, dosing, kinetics and evidence — with an honest verdict at the end.
Verdict
Route decides this one, not potency
What you are actually choosing between
Both are classed here as healing and repair compounds, so this is a within-class choice: the mechanism is broadly shared and what separates them is kinetics, route, and how much has actually been tested.
The overlap is inflammation. On this site's goal weighting — an editorial priority score, not a measure of effect size — ARA-290 rates 4/5 for inflammation and Larazotide rates 3/5. Outside that overlap they diverge: ARA-290 also carries weight for neuroprotection, Larazotide for gut health.
The evidence
Neither has an evidence edge — both sit at the same tier. ARA-290: controlled human trials behind it, without an approval; phase 2 results were mixed and it is approved nowhere. Larazotide: controlled human trials behind it, without an approval; its phase 3 was stopped for futility at interim analysis. Anyone telling you one is clearly better supported than the other is going beyond what is published.
How they differ in practice
ARA-290 is a subcutaneous injection; Larazotide is taken by mouth. That is the difference most people actually feel: ARA-290 means reconstituting a vial and injecting; Larazotide does not require either. If needles are the deciding factor, this line settles it before any of the rest matters.
ARA-290 has a characterized half-life of 3 min; Larazotide does not have one published here at all. That asymmetry is worth more than it looks — it usually tracks how much formal pharmacology has been done on a compound.
Committed time differs: ARA-290 runs 4 weeks, Larazotide runs 12 weeks.
Risk and difficulty
The contraindication lists are not the same: ARA-290 flags active malignancy, which Larazotide does not; Larazotide flags under 18, which ARA-290 does not. If any of those describe you they remove a compound from consideration outright, regardless of everything above.
Larazotide is rated intermediate here and ARA-290 advanced. That rating is about how much can go wrong in handling, dosing and monitoring, not about how well either works.
Source notes
What the evidence actually says
Verbatim, so you can check the verdict above against what it was built from.
ARA-290
Unusually well studied for this category: cibinetide reached randomized placebo-controlled phase 2 trials in sarcoidosis-associated small fiber neuropathy and in type 2 diabetes, typically 2-4 mg subcutaneously once daily for 28 days. Results were mixed and it is not approved anywhere. It is an EPO-derived peptide engineered not to stimulate erythropoiesis, so it does not raise haematocrit. Plasma half-life is only a few minutes; the effect is receptor-mediated and outlasts the exposure.
Larazotide
A zonulin antagonist taken orally as a capsule; it acts locally in the gut lumen and is essentially not absorbed systemically. It has run randomized placebo-controlled trials in coeliac disease, including a phase 3 that was stopped for futility at interim analysis. Trial dosing was 0.5 mg three times daily before meals, with 1 mg and 2 mg arms performing no better than 0.5 mg. This app has no three-times-daily option, so the schedule below is an approximation of the studied regimen. Not an approved medicine.
Side by side
The numbers
| Attribute | ARA-290 | Larazotide |
|---|---|---|
| Class | Healing & repair | Healing & repair |
| Routes | Subcutaneous | Oral |
| Dose range | 2 mg–4 mg (typical 4 mg) | 500 mcg–2 mg (typical 500 mcg) |
| Frequency | Once daily | Three times daily |
| Half-life | 3 min | Not characterized |
| Cycle length | 4 weeks | 12 weeks |
| Experience | Advanced | Intermediate |
| Evidence | Controlled human trials | Controlled human trials |
| Contraindications |
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| Side effects |
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Turn a typical dose into a mark on the syringe: ARA-290
Goals
Where they overlap, and where they do not
| Goal | ARA-290 | Larazotide |
|---|---|---|
| inflammation | ARA-290: 4/5 | Larazotide: 3/5 |
| immune support | ARA-290: 3/5 | Larazotide: 2/5 |
| gut healthone only | ARA-290: — | Larazotide: 5/5 |
| neuroprotectionone only | ARA-290: 5/5 | Larazotide: — |
| injury repairone only | ARA-290: 2/5 | Larazotide: — |
| metabolic healthone only | ARA-290: 2/5 | Larazotide: — |
They overlap on 2 goals and diverge on 4. Weights are this site’s editorial priority score out of 5 — how central a goal is to why people use a compound. They are not effect sizes and two 5s do not mean two equal results.
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Educational information only, not medical advice. Talk to a licensed clinician before starting, changing, or stopping anything.