Brimapitide dosage and evidence
Written by Aaron CuhaReviewed Sep 2026
The short answer
Brimapitide is a lab made peptide that blocks JNK, an enzyme that tells stressed cells to die. In its big trial for sudden hearing loss, 256 people did no better than on a dummy shot. Two big trials for eye swelling after cataract surgery, with 648 people, finished in 2016. Their results were never posted or published.
Evidence grade for Brimapitide: Moderate. The rule: at least one finished study in people, and at least 100 people who took it. The sum on this page: 4 completed trials, 510 people given it. A grade counts how much has been done to people, not whether it works.
- People given it
- 510
- Human studies
- 4
- Found nothing
- 0
Dose
No human dose established
Amounts that were given in studies sit in Human evidence on this page. None of them is a personal dose.
4 completed trials, 510 people given it
No first-hand reports gathered yet. That is a gap in what we have collected, not a finding that nothing has been reported.
Goal pages: Brain, memory and mood, Injury, healing and recovery, Immune system and inflammation, Gut health
In plain English
In plain English, from Aaron
This is how I would explain it to a friend. The evidence, with the numbers, is further down the page.
Brimapitide is a lab made peptide that blocks JNK, an enzyme that tells stressed cells to die. It has been tested as one shot into the ear for sudden deafness. It has also been tested as one shot into the eye after surgery. It is not approved anywhere.
What people take it for
- Sudden hearing loss in one ear.
- Swelling inside the eye after surgery.
- Some catalogues sell it for the brain. No human study backs that.
What studies in people showed
The big hearing trial did not work. 256 adults with sudden hearing loss got one shot through the eardrum, the drug or a dummy. A month later, hearing was no better on the drug. Looked at afterwards, the lower dose seemed to help people with total hearing loss. A second big trial that could have checked this was stopped at 56 people. An earlier study of about 210 people also failed across the whole group. Two big eye trials with 648 people finished in 2016. Their results were never shared. In mice bred to get an Alzheimer's-like disease, it cut plaque. No person with Alzheimer's has had it.
What people report
Reports, not study results
The good
- Side effects in the studies were mild. In 24 healthy men they were mild to moderate and did not get worse at higher doses.
The bad
- In the big hearing trial, it did no better than a dummy shot.
- Every person in a study got one dose in one spot. Nothing is known about taking it again and again.
Where these come from: These points come from the studies on this page. We have not collected user reports on this one yet.
My bottom line
My opinion: roughly 1,200 people have had it, and the one clear trial was a miss. That is not a reason to inject it for your brain. I would not go near it.
An opinion, not a finding. I am a coach, not a doctor.
What it has been measured to do
Measured in people
Goals Brimapitide has been tested for in people, biggest studies first. We count only what the studies on this page say, so the real numbers may be higher.
- Inflammation20 people · 1 study
Animal and lab work, not yet tested in people
Real results, but from animals or cells, not people. What works in a mouse often does not work the same way in a person. Nobody can patent this, so nobody would ever earn back the cost of a study in people. That is usually why there is none. The record on this one is set out below.
- Memory and thinking1 animal or lab study
34 of the 36 indexed goals have no study of any kind behind Brimapitide
No study in people, animals or cells on this page reports a result for these. That does not prove Brimapitide does nothing for them. It does mean anything you have heard about Brimapitide and one of these did not come from a study cited here.
Show full evidence
What is Brimapitide?
Brimapitide is a lab made peptide that blocks JNK, an enzyme that tells stressed cells to die. In its big trial for sudden hearing loss, 256 people did no better than on a dummy shot. Two big trials for eye swelling after cataract surgery, with 648 people, finished in 2016. Their results were never posted or published.
Brimapitide is a lab made peptide built from mirror image amino acids, which the body is slow to break down. One end is a piece of an HIV protein, called TAT, that lets it slip into cells. The other end blocks JNK, short for c-Jun N-terminal kinase. JNK is an enzyme that pushes injured cells to kill themselves. The drug has had several names. It was D-JNKI-1 in the lab, AM-111 at Auris Medical for hearing loss, and XG-102 at Xigen for eye swelling. Lately it has been called KU002 in a bladder pain programme.
The hearing work is the part with published results. The biggest study was in 256 people with severe to total sudden hearing loss in one ear. Each got one shot through the eardrum. Hearing at day 28 was no better than on a dummy shot. The authors later reported that the lower dose looked better in people with total loss. That look was done after the results were in. A second big trial (NCT02809118) was stopped after 56 people because the first one had failed. An earlier study in 210 people with sudden hearing loss also showed no benefit across the whole group. The authors said milder cases recover on their own anyway. They reported a benefit in the worst cases.
In the eye work, 20 people got one shot under the surface of the eye after surgery or injury. It was well tolerated. Then two big trials in eye swelling after cataract surgery enrolled 648 people. They finished in 2015 and 2016. Neither has posted results or a paper that could be found.
In animals, the peptide protected hearing in guinea pigs and rodents after damage from noise, implant surgery and inner ear swelling. In mice bred to get an Alzheimer's-like disease, a 10 mg/kg drip every three weeks cut plaque and memory problems. None of the Alzheimer's work has been tried in a person. Brimapitide is not approved anywhere.
How does Brimapitide work?
In people, what is known is how the body handles it and whether it is safe. 24 healthy men got one drip of 10 to 80 mcg/kg. The drug left the blood fast, with a half-life of roughly 20 to 40 minutes. Side effects were mild and did not grow with the dose. After a shot under the surface of the eye, none showed up in the blood at doses up to 450 mcg. Nobody has shown that it reaches and blocks JNK in a human ear or eye. That idea comes from the animal work. In animals and in a dish, the TAT piece carries the peptide into cells. The other piece comes from a protein called JIP-1. It stops JNK from switching on a protein called c-Jun. That breaks the chain of signals that makes hair cells in the ear and nerve cells die after noise, drugs or loss of blood flow. The hearing trial authors think JNK only matters after big sudden injuries. That is their way of explaining a failed trial. It has not been shown in people.
What have studies in people found about Brimapitide?
Roughly 1,200 people have had brimapitide across seven studies in hearing loss, eye swelling and healthy men. Only one study was big enough to give a clear answer and published its result. That was the 256 person hearing loss study, and the drug did no better than a dummy.
- Sudden hearing loss, large final-stage trial (2019): 256 people, one shot through the eardrum. Hearing by day 28 was no better than on a dummy shot. Looked at afterwards, the 0.4 mg/mL dose seemed to help people with total hearing loss. The maker paid.
- Sudden hearing loss, mid-stage trial (2014): about 210 people. No benefit across the whole group. A benefit was reported in the severe to total hearing loss group, which then became the group for the big trial. The maker paid.
- Eye swelling after cataract surgery: two large final-stage trials with 339 and 309 people. They finished in 2015 and 2016. No results posted and no paper found.
- NCT02809118: a second large hearing trial, stopped at 56 people after the first big trial reported.
- Healthy men: 24 people got one drip of 10 to 80 mcg/kg. It was well tolerated and gone from the blood in under an hour.
- Eye swelling: 20 people got one shot under the surface of the eye. It was well tolerated. Everyone got the drug, so there was no comparison.
- Bladder pain (interstitial cystitis): a 2024 review describes an early study with the drug put straight into the bladder, under the name KU002. Very little reached the blood, and symptoms reportedly got better. The study itself has not been published.
What this does not tell you: The hearing result is a failed trial plus a group picked out afterwards. That can only raise a new question. It needs a new trial in people with total hearing loss to confirm it, and the trial built to do that was stopped. The eye trials were never reported, so nobody knows how they came out. A finished trial with no results after nearly ten years tells you something too. There is no human data at all for the Alzheimer's, gut swelling (colitis) or general brain protection uses that catalogues list. Every person got a single dose into one spot. Nothing is known about repeated doses that spread through the body.
The state of the research
Brimapitide has been through three companies and three diseases. The pattern is the same each time. The idea works well in injured animal tissue. In people, the whole treated group does no better than the dummy group. Auris Medical paid for the hearing work. Watch how the target group kept shifting. First a small group from the mid-stage trial. Then that group in the big trial. Then a smaller group picked out of the big trial afterwards. That is how a programme can keep finding a group that responds, always one step ahead of the trial that would test it. The authors themselves flagged that last result as not corrected for the many other comparisons they ran to find it.
Xigen's two cataract trials enrolled 648 people and finished by early 2016. Ten years on, neither has results on ClinicalTrials.gov, and no paper could be found. Companies do not have to publish. When they do not, the public record leans toward whatever did get published. The bladder work under the name KU002 is described only in a 2024 review by people involved in the programme. The data behind it has not appeared. None of this means the peptide does nothing. It means that after roughly 1,200 people, the published case for a real benefit rests on one group picked out afterwards.
The evidence, in charts
Fig. 1a · how many people
510people, across 4 studies in people cited here
| Study | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| NCT02561091, Otology & Neurotology 2019 | 256 | 50% |
| NCT00802425, Otology & Neurotology 2014 | 210 | 41% |
| NCT01570205, Pharmacology Research & Perspectives 2014 | 24 | 5% |
| Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics 2015 | 20 | 4% |
One study holds 50% of these people, so the total rests more on one study than its size suggests. Counts are the number of people each study on this page says it signed up. That includes studies that only watched people and gave nobody the compound. 2 more studies in people give no headcount and are not counted here. Studies still signing people up are left out, and only studies cited on this page are counted.
Fig. 1b · evidence mix
6 of 7 sources here are studies in people. The rest is not.
- Study in people · done in people686%
- Animal study · done in animals114%
Counted from the list of sources on this page. It counts only what we cite, so there may be more studies out there. A review counts once, however many studies it sums up.
Fig. 2 · evidence over time
The studies cover 5 different years, 2014 to 2019, counted from the list of sources on this page. The newest source on file is from 2019, more than five years ago. Research on it may have gone quiet.
Fig. 3 · legal status at a glance
US
Not approved
UK
Not approved
AU
Not approved
CA
Not approved
Not approved in any of the four countries shown. This is what the law says, not a verdict on the science. See Legal status below for the full text and any notes.
Fig. 4 · how much does what
Nobody has tested different amounts in people
This chart would show how the effect changes as the amount goes up. For this compound, nobody has measured that in people. So we leave it empty. We will not borrow an animal chart and pretend it works the same in people.
Fig. 5 · what the molecule is
- Kind of compound
- Peptide
- Molecule weight
- Not on file
- Half-life
- About 30 minutesUltra-short, minutes
- Chain length
- None on file
Half-life as stated on file: About 20 to 40 minutes (intravenous, healthy volunteers)
No amino acid sequence is on file for Brimapitide, so none is drawn rather than guessed from a name.
The studies we cite
- Study in people2019Efficacy and Safety of AM-111 in the Treatment of Acute Unilateral Sudden Deafness: A Double-blind, Randomized, Placebo-controlled Phase 3 Study
The big trial of this drug for sudden deafness did not work. Two hundred and fifty six adults who had suddenly lost hearing in one ear were treated at fifty one hospitals. Each got one injection through the eardrum, the drug or a dummy. Hearing a month later was no better on the drug. The company then looked again at the worst affected patients and saw a hint of benefit. That look came after the results were in, so it settles nothing. The maker paid.
256 patients aged 18 to 65 within 72 hours of severe to profound idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss, 51 European and Asian sites, single intratympanic injection of 0.4 or 0.8 mg/mL or placebo. The primary endpoint, hearing improvement to day 28, was not met in the overall population. A post hoc analysis reported a nominally significant effect of 0.4 mg/mL in patients with profound loss. Sponsored by Auris Medical, the developer (NCT02561091).
- Study in people2014Efficacy and safety of AM-111 in the treatment of acute sensorineural hearing loss: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled phase II study
The earlier trial failed in the same way. About two hundred and ten people with sudden hearing loss, or hearing damage from noise, were treated at twenty five hospitals within two days. Nobody in the group as a whole did better on the drug than on a dummy. The authors blame the milder cases, who tend to recover on their own. They report a benefit in the worst affected patients. That group was picked out of a trial that had already missed its target. The maker paid.
About 210 patients within 48 hours of acoustic trauma or idiopathic sudden hearing loss, 25 European sites, 0.4 or 2.0 mg/mL or placebo. No treatment benefit in the whole population, which the authors attribute to spontaneous recovery in milder cases; a benefit was reported in the severe to profound subgroup (threshold 60 dB or worse). Sponsored by Auris Medical (NCT00802425).
- Study in people2016Efficacy and Safety of AM-111 as Acute Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss Treatment (NCT02809118)
The company stopped its second big trial early. Fifty six people had enrolled out of the number planned. The stated reason was that new information about whether the drug works had arrived from another study. That other study was the first big trial, and it had missed its target. So this trial was halted because the drug had already failed elsewhere. The record carries no results for the fifty six people who took part.
Second phase 3, terminated after 56 of the planned participants. Sponsor's stated reason: availability of relevant new efficacy data from another study, meaning the failed primary endpoint of the first phase 3.
- Study in people2014XG-102 administered to healthy male volunteers as a single intravenous infusion: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-escalating study
A first safety check in healthy men, not a test of whether the drug helps anyone. Twenty four men each got a single drip of the peptide at one of three strengths, or a dummy. Side effects were mild to moderate and did not worsen at higher doses. The body cleared the drug within about an hour. Raising the dose pushed blood levels up faster than expected. Nothing here says the drug treats anything. The maker paid for the study.
24 healthy men, single intravenous doses of 10, 40 or 80 mcg/kg over 60 minutes (6 per dose) or placebo (2 per dose). Adverse events were mild to moderate and not dose related; geometric mean half-life 0.36 to 0.65 hours; exposure rose more than proportionally with dose. Sponsored by Xigen, the developer (NCT01570205).
- Study in people2015Subconjunctival injection of XG-102, a JNK inhibitor peptide, in patients with intraocular inflammation: a safety and tolerability study
A small safety study in inflamed eyes, with nothing to compare it against. Twenty people who had inflammation inside the eye after surgery or injury got one injection under the surface of the eye. Seventeen side effects were recorded and all were judged unrelated to the drug. Almost none of the peptide reached the bloodstream. Inflammation did fall. Everybody got the drug, so there is no way to know whether it would have settled anyway. The paper does not say who paid.
Phase 1b, 20 patients with post-surgical or post-traumatic intraocular inflammation, single subconjunctival dose of 45, 90, 450 or 900 mcg (5 per group). 17 non-serious adverse events judged unrelated to treatment; plasma peptide undetectable in the three lower dose groups. No control group, so the observed fall in inflammation cannot be attributed to the drug. Funding not stated in the abstract.
- Study in people2014Efficacy and Safety of XG-102 in Reduction of Post-cataract Surgery Intraocular Inflammation (NCT02235272)
Two large trials finished ten years ago and neither has ever been reported. Together they enrolled more than six hundred people having cataract surgery. One completed at the end of 2015 and the other in early 2016. No results were posted for either and no paper has been found. Six hundred people took part in a test whose answer nobody has seen. That is what the record shows.
Phase 3, 339 participants, completed December 2015. No results posted and no publication located. A companion phase 3 (NCT02508337, 309 participants, completed January 2016) is in the same position.
- Animal study2018Brimapitide Reduced Neuronal Stress Markers and Cognitive Deficits in 5XFAD Transgenic Mice
In mice. These mice were bred to get a disease like Alzheimer's. They got a drip of the peptide every three weeks for three or six months. Plaque in the brain dropped at three months but not at six. Memory problems and signs of dying cells were lower at six months. Only 6 to 9 mice were in each group. Nobody has tested this in a person with Alzheimer's.
5XFAD mice given 10 mg/kg intravenously every 3 weeks for 3 or 6 months (6 to 9 per group). Plaque burden fell at 3 months but not at 6; cognitive deficits, cell death markers and IL-1beta were reduced at 6 months. Mouse data only.
Where to buy Brimapitide
No seller we track lists Brimapitide yet. We read sellers’ public product lists every week, and this section fills in as soon as one does. Every seller, graded
Common questions
Has Brimapitide been tested in people?
Yes. 510 people given it across 4 completed trials cited here, 0 of which found nothing. Brimapitide is a lab made peptide that blocks JNK, an enzyme that tells stressed cells to die. In its big trial for sudden hearing loss, 256 people did no better than on a dummy shot. Two big trials for eye swelling after cataract surgery, with 648 people, finished in 2016. Their results were never posted or published.
What is the Brimapitide dosage?
No human dose established. Amounts that were given in studies sit in Human evidence on this page. None of them is a personal dose. 4 completed trials, 510 people given it
Is Brimapitide FDA-approved?
Not FDA approved. A final-stage study in sudden hearing loss missed its main goal (2019). Two final-stage studies of inflammation after cataract surgery finished in 2016 with no posted results.
Did brimapitide work for sudden hearing loss?
No. In the big trial of 256 people, hearing was no better than on a dummy shot. Looking back afterwards, the authors said the lower dose seemed to help people with total hearing loss. A second big trial that might have tested that was stopped after 56 people. The mid-stage trial before it also failed across its whole group.
What happened to the cataract trials?
Two big trials of XG-102 in eye swelling after cataract surgery enrolled 339 and 309 people. They finished in 2015 and 2016. As of September 2026, no results are posted on ClinicalTrials.gov and no paper could be found.
Is there evidence in Alzheimer's disease?
Only in mice. The mice were bred to get an Alzheimer's-like disease and got a drip of brimapitide every three weeks. Plaque fell at three months, and memory problems were lower at six. No person with Alzheimer's has had it in a trial.
Is brimapitide a nootropic?
Nothing supports that. It blocks JNK and was studied for sudden tissue injury. In every human trial it was given as one shot into one spot. No study has measured thinking or memory in a healthy person taking it.