ARA-290, also called cibinetide, is one of the more elegant ideas in this database. Erythropoietin, the hormone athletes dope with, has a tissue-protective effect that is entirely separate from its famous ability to raise red blood cell counts. ARA-290 was engineered to trigger only the protective half, leaving the blood-boosting half alone, by targeting what researchers call the innate repair receptor. It was developed by Araim Pharmaceuticals and reached genuine mid-stage trials, mostly in the nerve pain that accompanies sarcoidosis. At least three randomised controlled trials have been completed, the largest enrolling sixty four participants, with exposures running to about four weeks. It has never progressed to a large late-stage trial and no regulator has approved it, so it sits in the honest middle ground: real science, real trials, unfinished.