{"slug":"aicar","seoKey":"aicar","inn":"acadesine","displayName":"AICAR","codes":["NSC-105823","GP 1-110","ARA-100","SCH-900395"],"synonyms":["acadesine","AICA riboside","AICAr","5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleoside","5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-1-β-D-ribofuranoside","Z-riboside","Arasine","Acadra","Protara"],"legalClass":"research_chemical","identifiers":{"cas":"2627-69-2","pubchemCid":17513,"unii":"53IEF47846","inchikey":"RTRQQBHATOEIAF-UUOKFMHZSA-N","drugbankId":"DB04944","chemblId":"CHEMBL1551724","wikidataQid":"Q4671562","formula":"C9H14N4O5","molecularWeight":258.23},"approvals":[{"market":"US","status":"not_approved","note":"Not approved and never has been. Queries on 2026-09-13 found no entry in the drug approval records and no product listing, while a control query for an approved medicine on the same endpoints returned results. Unlike most research peptides, the substance was never even nominated as a bulk substance for pharmacy compounding, so it appears on none of the compounding lists. A large phase 3 programme was run in the United States and stopped for futility in 2010; whether a marketing application was ever filed in the 1990s could not be established.","source":"https://api.fda.gov/drug/drugsfda.json?search=acadesine"},{"market":"EU","status":"not_approved","note":"No authorised medicine and no assessment report. An orphan designation for B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia was granted on 2005-05-27 (EU/3/05/280, sponsor Advancell); a designation is a development incentive, not a marketing authorisation, and the regulator's own page states that no marketing authorisation followed.","source":"https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines/human/orphan-designations/eu-3-05-280"},{"market":"DE","status":"not_approved","note":"Not an authorised medicine and not listed in annex 1 of the prescription-only ordinance, the full text having been searched on 2026-09-13 with working control terms. It IS named in the annex to the anti-doping act under section III.4, metabolic modulators, as the example of AMPK-axis agonists, and the 2023 doping-agent quantity ordinance sets a 'not small quantity' of 7 000 mg for that line. Acquisition or possession above that threshold is a criminal offence.","source":"https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/antidopg/anlage.html"},{"market":"UK","status":"not_approved","note":"No authorised medicine known. A direct query of the products register was not evaluable on 2026-09-13, because results load by script and only the empty shell page was retrievable; a control query was therefore not possible either. The negative finding is inferred from the absence of any authorisation worldwide, each of which was checked with a working control.","source":"https://products.mhra.gov.uk/search/?search=acadesine"},{"market":"AU","status":"not_approved","note":"Not named in the June 2026 Poisons Standard; the full 674-page text was searched on 2026-09-13 for the substance name, the abbreviation and the chemical stem with no match, while a control term in the same document was found three times. A direct query of the register of therapeutic goods was not possible on that date. The absence of a schedule entry does not make an injectable unlisted substance permitted goods.","source":"https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2026L00633/asmade"},{"market":"CA","status":"not_approved","note":"No authorised medicine. The drug product database returned an empty list for the active ingredient on 2026-09-13, while the same query for an approved peptide returned two records, so the endpoint was working.","source":"https://health-products.canada.ca/api/drug/activeingredient/?ingredientname=acadesine"},{"market":"CH","status":"not_approved","note":"No authorisation. The regulator's extended list of authorised human medicines was downloaded on 2026-09-13 and searched for the substance name, the abbreviation and the chemical stem with no match, while a control term in the same file returned 147 entries.","source":"https://www.swissmedic.ch/"}],"devStage":"discontinued","strongestEvidence":"rct_phase3","wada":{"status":"prohibited","section":"S4.4.1","listYear":2026,"source":"https://www.wada-ama.org/en/prohibited-list"},"trials":[{"nct":"NCT00872001","name":"The effect of acadesine on reducing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular adverse events in coronary artery bypass graft surgery (RED-CABG)","phase":"Phase 3","n":3080,"status":"TERMINATED"},{"nct":"NCT00559624","name":"A phase I/II open label dose escalation study to investigate the safety and tolerability of acadesine in patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia","phase":"Phase 1/2","n":40,"status":"COMPLETED"},{"nct":"NCT01813838","name":"A phase I-II trial of acadesine in IPSS high and int-2 MDS, AML with 20-30% marrow blasts","phase":"Phase 1/2","n":5,"status":"TERMINATED"},{"nct":"NCT00004314","name":"Phase II pilot study of aminoimidazole carboxamide riboside (AICAR), a precursor of purine synthesis, for Lesch-Nyhan disease","phase":"Phase 2","n":2,"status":"COMPLETED"},{"nct":"NCT00168519","name":"Contraction (exercise) mediated glucose uptake as a therapeutic target in type 2 diabetes","phase":"N/A","n":40,"status":"COMPLETED"}],"sameAs":["https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/17513","https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4671562","https://go.drugbank.com/drugs/DB04944"],"lastVerified":"2026-09-13","version":"1.0","published":true,"locale":"en","title":"AICAR: what the studies show, status and safety","summary":"AICAR, also known as acadesine, is not a peptide. It is a nucleoside, a small molecule that the human body makes and excretes by itself, and it is listed in this register because it is sold alongside peptides. Its largest trial gave 3,080 heart surgery patients either acadesine or a dummy infusion and found no difference whatsoever. No country has ever approved it, and it is banned in sport at all times.","updated":"2026-09-13","url":"https://mypep.app/peptides/aicar"}