CJC-1295: with and without DAC, dosage, side effects and the research

CJC-1295 was developed by the Montreal company ConjuChem and described in 2005. It starts from GRF(1-29), the active 29-amino-acid fragment of human GHRH that is also the basis of sermorelin. Four amino acids are substituted (including a D-alanine at position 2) to make the peptide more resistant to enzymatic breakdown, and a reactive maleimide group is attached to an extra lysine at the end. After injection that group binds covalently to albumin, the most abundant protein in blood, which dramatically extends how long the peptide circulates ^[1]. ConjuChem called this approach Drug Affinity Complex, or DAC.

All of the published research on “CJC-1295” refers to this DAC version: the rat study that identified it ^[1], a mouse study ^[2], and the human studies discussed below ^[3][4].

In plain terms, what CJC-1295 does is tell the pituitary gland to release more of its own growth hormone, and keep telling it for days. That is a measurable hormonal effect in people ^[3]. The uses it is promoted for, such as fat loss, muscle, skin, sleep and injury healing, come from bodybuilding and wellness forums rather than trials; a study of online forums found these were the reasons women gave for using it ^[14]. No clinical study has tested any of them.

Many suppliers sell two different products under similar names. “CJC-1295 with DAC” is the albumin-binding molecule described above. “CJC-1295 no DAC”, also sold as Modified GRF (1-29) or Mod GRF 1-29, is the four-substituted GRF(1-29) peptide without the maleimide-lysine group. It cannot bind albumin, so it would be expected to behave like a somewhat more stable version of sermorelin, acting for a short time rather than for days.

These are different molecules with different molecular weights and, almost certainly, very different durations of action. The distinction matters because the human evidence for CJC-1295 (a half-life of roughly six to eight days, raised IGF-1 for up to a week or more) comes entirely from the DAC version ^[3][4]. We found no published human pharmacokinetic or clinical study of Modified GRF (1-29) under that name. It appears in the scientific literature mainly in forensic and anti-doping work: Danish customs seizures, for instance, identified glycine-modified versions of “modified GRF 1-29” alongside GHRP analogues ^[5]. A 2026 review of GH-axis peptides also treats CJC-1295 with and without DAC as separate agents with different evidence ^[6].

When comparing products, check the label and the certificate of analysis: the molecular weight reported by mass spectrometry should match the molecule you intend to buy.

The confusion is visible in the forensic record. When Norwegian police and customs sent an unknown preparation for analysis in 2009, the laboratory found a 29-amino-acid peptide with an amidated end and matched its sequence to the product marketed as CJC-1295 ^[11]. That is the length of the modified GRF(1-29) chain; the DAC molecule carries an extra lysine and the maleimide group ^[1]. Anti-doping chemists now treat the two as separate targets: a 2021 method for detecting GHRH analogues in urine listed CJC-1295 and CJC-1295 with DAC as distinct analytes alongside sermorelin and tesamorelin ^[12].

Search results for CJC-1295 with or without DAC often present them as two strengths of the same drug. The CJC-1295 DAC vs no DAC question is better understood as a choice between a studied molecule with a half-life of about a week and an unstudied one expected to act only briefly, sold under a shared name.

Like natural GHRH, CJC-1295 binds the GHRH receptor on pituitary somatotroph cells and stimulates growth hormone (GH) release, which raises insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). The difference is duration. Native GHRH lasts minutes in the blood; once CJC-1295 is attached to albumin, the complex keeps stimulating the receptor for days.

A key question was whether constant stimulation would flatten the normal pulsing pattern of GH release. In a study of healthy young men, one injection of CJC-1295 increased overall GH secretion and IGF-1 while GH pulses kept their normal frequency and size; the main change was a 7.5-fold rise in the baseline (trough) GH level between pulses ^[4].

CJC-1295 acts on a different receptor from ipamorelin and the GH-releasing peptides (GHRP-2, GHRP-6, hexarelin), which act at the ghrelin receptor. Combining a GHRH analogue with a ghrelin-receptor agonist produces a greater-than-additive GH response in human studies of the older compounds ^[7], which is the rationale behind the popular CJC-1295 and ipamorelin combination. That specific combination has not been studied in any published human trial.

In the original rat experiments, CJC-1295 produced a fourfold greater GH response over two hours than unmodified GRF(1-29), resisted breakdown by the enzyme DPP-4, and was still detectable in plasma beyond 72 hours, bound to albumin ^[1].

In mice genetically unable to make GHRH, 2 µg of CJC-1295 given every 24 hours for five weeks produced normal body weight, length and body composition, and increased pituitary GH content. Dosing every 48 or 72 hours improved growth but did not fully normalise it. The treated mice also showed more GH-producing cells in the pituitary, suggesting that sustained GHRH stimulation can make somatotrophs multiply ^[2]. These are animal results and cannot be translated directly to people.

The main human data come from two randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind ascending-dose trials in healthy adults aged 21 to 61, published together by Teichman and colleagues in 2006. A single injection raised mean GH levels two- to tenfold for six days or more and IGF-1 levels 1.5- to threefold for nine to eleven days, depending on dose. The estimated half-life was 5.8 to 8.1 days, and with repeated weekly or fortnightly doses IGF-1 stayed above baseline for up to 28 days. No serious adverse reactions were reported ^[3].

The design is worth understanding because it is often over-interpreted. The first trial gave one of four ascending single doses and followed participants for 28 days; the second gave two or three doses at weekly or fortnightly intervals over 49 days. The outcomes were hormone levels and drug pharmacokinetics, not muscle, fat or any clinical measure. The authors saw evidence of a cumulative effect with repeated doses and concluded the data supported developing CJC-1295 as a treatment ^[3], which is a statement about promise rather than proven benefit.

A companion study measured GH every 20 minutes overnight in healthy men before and one week after a single injection. Mean GH rose by 46% and IGF-1 by 45%, with pulsatility preserved. The participants were men aged 20 to 40 given 60 or 90 µg/kg, and the two doses produced no significant difference in response. Interestingly, the rise in IGF-1 did not correlate with any single measure of GH secretion, and the authors suggested that the sustained increase in baseline GH was the main driver ^[4].

ConjuChem then began a phase 2 trial in people with HIV-associated visceral obesity, the same indication later approved for tesamorelin. In July 2006 the company halted the trial after a participant died; at the time the cause and any relationship to the drug were reported as under investigation ^[8]. The registry entry lists the trial as terminated ^[9], and no results have been published. Development of CJC-1295 as a medicine did not resume.

In short, the human evidence is limited to short-term hormone measurements in healthy volunteers. There are no published human trials of CJC-1295 for body composition, fat loss, muscle, recovery, sleep or ageing, and none at all for the no-DAC version.

A further study compared serum proteins in 11 healthy young men before and one week after a CJC-1295 injection; several changed, including isoforms of apolipoprotein A1 and transthyretin, and one protein spot tracked IGF-1 levels. The authors proposed these as possible markers of GH action, not as evidence of any health effect ^[13].

The benefits shown in people are hormonal. After one injection of the DAC version, average GH rose two- to tenfold for six days or more and IGF-1 rose one-and-a-half- to threefold for nine to eleven days, with GH still released in normal pulses ^[3][4]. Those are the only CJC-1295 benefits demonstrated in a controlled human study.

Everything else is inference from what GH and IGF-1 do when given as medicines, and that inference has not been tested for CJC-1295. The one trial that set out to measure a clinical outcome, in people with HIV-associated abdominal fat, was stopped and never reported ^[8][9]. By contrast, tesamorelin, another GHRH analogue, did complete phase 3 trials in that population and showed a reduction in visceral fat ^[22]. That result belongs to tesamorelin and should not be borrowed for CJC-1295.

For the DAC version, the hormonal timeline is well described. After a single injection, GH stayed raised for six days or more; IGF-1 stayed raised for nine to eleven days, and with repeated weekly or fortnightly doses IGF-1 remained above baseline for up to 28 days, with signs of a cumulative effect ^[3]. In the pulsatility study, the increases in GH and IGF-1 were measured one week after a single injection ^[4].

There is no comparable timeline for any physical result. No study has measured body fat, muscle, strength, skin or sleep after CJC-1295, so claims about when results appear, and CJC-1295 before and after photos, are not grounded in research. For the no-DAC version there is not even a hormonal timeline in people.

The CJC-1295 ipamorelin combination is the most searched topic for either peptide. The case for it is mechanistic. CJC-1295 stimulates the GHRH receptor; ipamorelin is a ghrelin-receptor agonist that, in pigs, released GH without raising ACTH or cortisol ^[15]. Because the two receptors are distinct, stimulating both at once can release more GH than either alone. The foundational evidence is a 1990 study in which GHRP-6 and GHRH given together to men released more GH than the sum of their separate responses ^[7]. Everything published on the pairing is collected in CJC-1295 and ipamorelin.

Later work with other members of the two classes supports the idea with qualifications. In critically ill adults given continuous infusions, adding GHRH to GHRP-2 doubled mean GH again and added a further 40% rise in IGF-1 compared with GHRP-2 alone ^[18]. But in healthy young men given single intravenous doses, GHRP-2 plus GHRH(1-29) released no more GH than the two responses added together ^[17]. Whether the effect is synergistic, additive or neither depends on doses, timing and the people studied, and none of these studies used CJC-1295 or ipamorelin.

What has been studied is each peptide on its own. Ipamorelin was given intravenously to healthy men and had a half-life of about two hours ^[16]; CJC-1295 with DAC was injected under the skin and lasted about a week ^[3]. The no-DAC form, which a 2026 review says is the version typically paired with ipamorelin, has no human data at all ^[6]. No published trial has given the two together, so there is no evidence-based dose, no measured result and no combination-specific safety data.

That gap covers the questions people most often ask. There is no researched CJC-1295 ipamorelin dosage per day or per week, no basis for a bodybuilding dose, and no data on 10 mg blend vials, whose ratio is fixed by the seller. The side effects to expect are those reported for GH-axis peptides in general, including fluid retention, joint and muscle pain, glucose changes and injection-site reactions ^[6], with no information on whether combining them adds to these. For arithmetic on vial strength and syringe units, see the peptide calculator.

CJC-1295 was built from sermorelin. Sermorelin is GRF(1-29), the shortest synthetic fragment of GHRH with full activity ^[20]; CJC-1295 is the same chain with four amino acids changed and the albumin-binding group added ^[1]. In rats, CJC-1295 produced a fourfold larger GH response over two hours than unmodified GRF(1-29) and resisted the enzyme DPP-4 that breaks the natural fragment down ^[1].

The regulatory histories are the reverse of what the chemistry might suggest. Sermorelin was a licensed US medicine (Geref) for testing and treating GH deficiency in children, given as a single intravenous test dose or as nightly injections of 30 µg/kg ^[20]; its maker discontinued it in 2008, and the FDA later confirmed this was not for safety or effectiveness reasons ^[21]. CJC-1295 never reached approval. The no-DAC version sits between them: chemically a stabilised sermorelin, but without sermorelin’s clinical record or CJC-1295’s pharmacokinetic data.

Tesamorelin is also a modified GHRH, but a longer one: its FDA label describes the full 44-amino-acid GHRH sequence with a hexenoyl group attached at the start ^[23]. It is short-acting, with an elimination half-life of 11 minutes after injection in healthy subjects, and is taken daily ^[23]. CJC-1295 with DAC lasts about a week ^[3].

The larger difference is evidence. In a phase 3 trial of 412 people with HIV and excess abdominal fat, 2 mg of tesamorelin daily for 26 weeks cut visceral fat by 15.2% while it rose by 5.0% on placebo ^[22], and it is approved for that use, though its label states it is not for weight loss management ^[23]. CJC-1295’s trial in the same population was halted ^[8]. Comparisons of CJC-1295 ipamorelin vs tesamorelin face the same imbalance: one side has a licence and phase 3 data, the other has neither.

Blends of Mod GRF 1-29 or CJC-1295 with GHRP-2, and stacks with hexarelin or GHRP-6, follow the same GHRH-plus-ghrelin-mimetic logic as the ipamorelin pairing. The older GH-releasing peptides differ in one relevant way: they raise ACTH, cortisol and prolactin as well as GH. In healthy men, a low intravenous dose of hexarelin given with GHRH(1-29) produced a large GH release with a moderate rise in prolactin and no rise in cortisol ^[19]. No study has combined any of these peptides with CJC-1295.

Every human study of CJC-1295 gave it by injection under the skin ^[3][4], and the rat study that identified it also used injection under the skin ^[1]. We found no published study of oral CJC-1295, CJC-1295 tablets or a nasal form. Products sold in those forms have no research behind them. For injected research material, the diluent and storage questions are covered in our guide to bacteriostatic water.

The human trials dosed CJC-1295 with DAC by body weight. The ascending-dose studies used single subcutaneous injections and then two or three doses given weekly or every two weeks; the authors reported that it was relatively well tolerated “particularly at doses of 30 or 60 µg/kg” ^[3]. The pulsatility study used a single 60 or 90 µg/kg injection ^[4]. In GHRH-deficient mice, the dose was 2 µg per mouse ^[2].

No human dose has been established for Modified GRF (1-29), because it has not been studied clinically. These figures describe what researchers used; they are not recommendations. For laboratory reconstitution arithmetic, see our peptide calculator.

The dosing interval is also part of the evidence. In the repeated-dose trial, CJC-1295 with DAC was given once a week or once every two weeks, not daily ^[3], which is why the question of a weekly dose only makes sense for the DAC form. No study has given the DAC form every day. Daily schedules circulating online relate to the no-DAC form ^[6]; they come from forums and have no trial behind them, and neither do CJC-1295 dosage charts.

In the phase 1 studies, no serious adverse reactions were reported, and the authors described CJC-1295 as safe and relatively well tolerated over the 28- and 49-day study periods ^[3]. The published abstracts do not give a detailed breakdown of individual side effects, so we have not listed them here.

The unresolved death in the phase 2 programme ^[8], the absence of any long-term data and the sustained elevation of GH and IGF-1 are the main open safety questions. The long half-life also has a practical consequence: unlike short-acting peptides, the effect of a DAC injection cannot be stopped quickly, because the drug remains bound to albumin for days after it is given ^[3][4]. A 2026 clinical review of GH-axis peptides lists fluid retention, joint and muscle pain, changes in glucose, and injection-site reactions among the adverse effects reported with this class, and notes that the composition of unregulated products is uncertain ^[6].

Whether CJC-1295 is safe over months or years cannot be answered from the published data, which cover at most 49 days ^[3]. The same review describes a possible effect on cancer growth from sustained GH and IGF-1 elevation as biologically plausible but unproven ^[6], and the mouse study showed that continuous GHRH stimulation increased the number of GH-producing pituitary cells ^[2]. Product identity is a separate risk: seized material sold as CJC-1295 has contained a 29-amino-acid peptide, the length of the no-DAC chain ^[11], and glycine-modified GHRH analogues have been found in seizures ^[5].

CJC-1295 is not an approved medicine in the UK, US, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, and its clinical development stopped in 2006. It is sold by research-chemical suppliers as a laboratory reagent. How the law treats buying and possessing it varies by country; see our legal status overview and the US page.

CJC-1295 is named on the WADA Prohibited List under S2 (GHRH and its analogues), alongside CJC-1293, sermorelin and tesamorelin, and is banned at all times ^[10]. The no-DAC version falls under the same class wording, which covers GHRH analogues generally rather than only the examples listed.

In the US, CJC-1295 used to be in Category 2 of the FDA’s list of bulk drug substances that may present significant safety risks in compounding. In 2026 it moved to a “nominated but withdrawn” section after the nomination was withdrawn; that change does not authorise its use in compounding ^[24]. Health Canada’s April 2026 advisory named CJC-1295 among unauthorised injectable peptides seized in Canada ^[25]. In Australia, the June 2026 Poisons Standard lists CJC-1295 as a prescription-only substance in Appendix D, which restricts possession without authority ^[26]; see our Australia page. New Zealand’s Medsafe classifies CJC-1295 as a prescription medicine ^[27], covered on our New Zealand page.

Both versions are sold as freeze-dried powder. No stability data have been published for research-grade CJC-1295, so handling follows general practice for lyophilised peptides; see our guide to storing peptides.

Because two different molecules share one name, this is a peptide where the certificate of analysis matters more than usual. If a listing says only “CJC-1295”, confirm with the supplier whether it contains the DAC group before comparing prices, since the two products are not interchangeable. Compare prices for the specific version you want, read the COA using our guide on how to read a COA, and prefer third-party tested suppliers.

Prices and availability vary by country, and so does the law. See CJC-1295 UK prices and CJC-1295 in Australia, and our checklist on how to spot a fake peptide supplier before ordering from an unfamiliar site.