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CJC-1295 (No DAC) 10 mg
Peptide Library · Profile
CJC-1295 (No DAC) 10 mg
Almost every figure published about CJC-1295 was measured on a different molecule from the one sold under that name. Not a different dose or a different batch — a different compound, with an extra amino acid and a thousand-fold longer half-life. Sorting out which is which is most of what this page does.
Molecular weight3,367.9Da — the with-DAC compound is 3,647.2
Amino acids29the with-DAC compound has 30
Human half-lifeNot measuredwith-DAC is 5.8 to 8.1 days
Human trials of this formNoneevery CJC-1295 trial used the conjugate
The short version
Plain English first. Everything below this section is the same material with the sources, the numbers and the caveats attached.
What it is
A 29-amino-acid growth-hormone-releasing hormone analogue. The “no DAC” part matters far more than it sounds.
What has actually been measured
The with-DAC version — a different molecule, one amino acid longer, with a half-life roughly a thousand times as long. That one has human trials.
What has not been measured
This one. No human trial has ever used the no-DAC form, and its half-life in a person has never been measured.
What most people get wrong
Nearly every figure published about “CJC-1295” was measured on the other compound. Not a different dose, not a different batch — a different molecule. Sorting out which is which is most of what this page does.
What this actually is
In 2005 a Canadian company called ConjuChem published a paper describing three synthetic analogues of growth-hormone-releasing hormone: CJC-1288, CJC-1293 and CJC-1295. All three were albumin-binding conjugates. Each carried an extra lysine at position 30 bearing a maleimidopropionic acid group, whose job is to latch covalently onto cysteine-34 of serum albumin once injected and ride around on it for days.
That conjugation is where the name came from. CJC-1295 is the conjugate. There is no ConjuChem compound called "CJC-1295 without DAC" — the phrase describes the 29-residue peptide core with the linker taken off, which has a proper name of its own: modified GRF(1-29), or [D-Ala2, Gln8, Ala15, Leu27]-GRF(1-29)-NH2. That is what is in this vial.
| Modified GRF(1-29) — this product | CJC-1295 with DAC | |
|---|---|---|
| Amino acids | 29 | 30 |
| Molecular formula | C152H252N44O42 | C165H269N47O46 |
| Molecular weight | 3,367.9 Da | 3,647.2 Da |
| CAS | 863288-34-0 | 446262-90-4 |
| Albumin linker | None | MPA on Lys30 |
| Measured human half-life | Never measured | 5.8–8.1 days |
Relative to natural GHRH(1-29) the four substitutions are Ala2 → D-Ala, which blocks the enzyme that would otherwise cleave the peptide almost immediately; Asn8 → Gln; Gly15 → Ala; and Met27 → Leu, which removes a methionine prone to oxidation.
The name tells you nothing. Check the mass.
It is worse than a naming inconsistency — the two main authorities use the name in opposite senses. The primary literature (ConjuChem 2005, Teichman 2006) uses "CJC-1295" to mean the conjugate. The FDA's 2024 compounding documents use "CJC-1295" to mean the 29-residue peptide and "CJC-1295 DAC" for the conjugate. Two documents can say "CJC-1295" and mean different molecules.
So do not trust the name, and do not trust the CAS number either — both numbers are used loosely in commerce. Trust the residue count and the mass. A certificate for a no-DAC product that quotes 3,647 Da, or C165, or a 30-residue sequence ending in lysine, is describing the conjugate whatever the label says.
Which is exactly why this product has no certificate published
Our certificate register lists CJC-1295 (No DAC) as pending, and this is the reason. A certificate was issued to us for this lot, at 99.17% purity. It names the compound tested as CJC-1295 DAC. That is not what we sell, so we held it rather than publish a document that would have looked like coverage and been a mismatch. We asked for a corrected certificate; a re-issued version arrived and it still read DAC, so it is still held. We would rather show you a gap in the register than fill it with the wrong molecule.
How it works
Modified GRF(1-29) binds the GHRH receptor on the somatotroph cells of the anterior pituitary, the same receptor natural GHRH binds. Receptor activation drives synthesis and pulsatile release of growth hormone, which raises hepatic IGF-1. As with every secretagogue, the compound is a trigger: everything attributed to it downstream is an effect of the growth hormone pulse.
Because the release is pituitary-mediated it remains under normal feedback. Somatostatin tone and IGF-1 negative feedback both still operate. That is the mechanistic argument for a secretagogue producing a more physiological profile than injected growth hormone — an argument about mechanism, not a demonstrated clinical advantage.
The linker was not a delivery detail. It was the drug.
The reason CJC-1295 with DAC produced days of elevated growth hormone and week-and-a-half-long IGF-1 elevation is that albumin carried it around for days. Take the linker off and that mechanism is gone: what remains is a GHRH analogue that resists one enzyme better than the natural hormone does. It is a reasonable molecule. It is not a long-acting one, and every published result describing sustained exposure describes the compound that still had the linker.
Pharmacokinetics
There is no published human pharmacokinetic study of this molecule. None. The figure you will see everywhere — "half-life approximately 30 minutes" — has no primary source behind it, and we went and checked.
Where the 30 minutes comes from
It traces to a Wikipedia entry, which carries two citations. One is a 2002 paper on GHRH analogues' resistance to enzymatic degradation — a laboratory stability question, not a measurement in a living human. The other is ConjuChem's 2005 paper, which is a study of the albumin conjugates in rats. Neither measures this peptide in a person. The number was then copied into vendor copy, and from there into a submission to the FDA, still without a citation that supports it.
The closest real measurement, and it is much shorter
The nearest thing to a relevant human figure is Soule and colleagues in 1994, who infused ten normal men and measured the half-life of the single-substitution analogue D-Ala2-GHRH(1-29)-NH2:
| Peptide | Half-life | Metabolic clearance |
|---|---|---|
| D-Ala2-GHRH(1-29)NH2 | 6.7 ± 0.5 min | 21 ± 1.2 mL/kg/min |
| GHRH(1-29)NH2, unmodified | 4.3 ± 1.4 min | 39.7 ± 3.9 mL/kg/min |
Ten men, constant intravenous infusion at 25 ng/kg/min. That compound carries one of this product's four substitutions, not all four, and it was given intravenously rather than subcutaneously — so it is not a measurement of what is in this vial. It is the only measured human half-life anywhere in this structural family, and it is about seven minutes, not thirty.
A short half-life is not a criticism. Tesamorelin, which has an approved human label and real efficacy data, has an eight-minute half-life, because a secretagogue only has to survive long enough to trigger a pulse. The problem is not that the number is small. The problem is that the number in circulation was never measured.
What the evidence shows
Every clinical figure attached to the name CJC-1295 was generated on the conjugate. There is no human trial of modified GRF(1-29), of any size, for any endpoint.
The study everybody is quoting
Teichman and colleagues, 2006, in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism — two randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind ascending-dose trials in healthy adults aged 21 to 61, over 28 and 49 days, dosed subcutaneously. From the abstract, verbatim:
"After a single injection of CJC-1295, there were dose-dependent increases in mean plasma GH concentrations by 2- to 10-fold for 6 d or more and in mean plasma IGF-I concentrations by 1.5- to 3-fold for 9–11 d. The estimated half-life of CJC-1295 was 5.8–8.1 d."
Those are the numbers in every vendor description of this product. They were measured on the albumin conjugate. A peptide cleared in minutes cannot elevate anything for nine days — the claim is not merely unsupported for the no-DAC form, it is mechanically impossible for it.
The trial that had a body-composition endpoint
ConjuChem ran one phase 2 study with the outcome people actually care about: CJC-1295 with DAC over twelve weeks in HIV patients with visceral obesity. It was terminated in July 2006 after a participant died at a site in Argentina. The attending physician's stated view, as later reported, was that the most likely explanation was asymptomatic coronary artery disease. The company discontinued the programme and the results were never published. The registry record carries no stated reason for termination at all, and the enrolment figure differs between the registry and contemporaneous reporting, so we are not going to print a participant count as though it were settled.
What is left, once the conjugate's data is set aside
- No human trial of modified GRF(1-29)
- No human pharmacokinetics
- No measured IGF-1 response
- No body-composition, fat-loss, lean-mass, sleep, recovery or skin outcome, at any dose
- No published study of it combined with a secretagogue
Class read-across — the honest substitute
The one GHRH-receptor agonist with an approved label and 26-week randomised data is tesamorelin. It is the best available guide to what this class does in a human body over months, and what it shows is not all upside:
| Finding at 26 weeks | On drug | On placebo |
|---|---|---|
| HbA1c reaching 6.5% or above | 5% | 1% |
| Peripheral oedema | 6% | 2% |
| Paraesthesia | 5% | 2% |
| IGF-1 above +2 standard deviations | 47% of treated subjects; 36% above +3 SD | |
This is a different molecule with a different half-life in a different population, so treat it as what the class does rather than what this compound does. It is still a great deal more informative than a trial that was run on a molecule with an extra amino acid.
Reconstitution
A 10 mg vial, worked at the volumes people actually use:
| Bacteriostatic water | Concentration | 1 unit (U-100) = | 100 mcg draw |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 mL | 5 mg/mL | 50 mcg | 2 units · 0.02 mL |
| 3 mL — our volume, and the vial's maximum | 3.33 mg/mL | 33.3 mcg | 3 units · 0.03 mL |
10 mg ÷ 2 mL = 5 mg/mL. At U-100, one unit is 0.01 mL, so one unit carries 50 mcg. The calculator will do this for any volume you choose.
Two units is not a measurement, it is a guess with a syringe attached. At 2 mL of diluent a 100 mcg draw sits at the very bottom of a U-100 barrel, where a half-unit misreading is a 25% error. Use the full 3 mL and the same draw becomes three units, where the same misreading is 16.7%. More water costs nothing but a slightly larger injection volume.
And that is the best this vial can do, which is worth saying plainly. The glass holds 3 mL, so there is no larger fill to reach for. At any dose near 100 mcg this is a three-unit draw whatever we do — read it carefully, in good light, and do not expect the precision you would get from a compound dosed in milligrams.
Direct the stream down the inside wall of the vial rather than onto the cake, swirl rather than shake, and label the vial with the resulting concentration — not the volume you added. The full method is in the reconstitution guide.
Reported protocols
Nothing in this section is trial-derived for this molecule, because no trial of this molecule exists. What follows is a map of where each figure came from.
| Figure | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| 100 mcg, or 1 mcg per kg, as a "saturation dose" | Vendor and forum copy. No primary source exists. We looked |
| Two to three times daily | Convention, reasoned from the short half-life. No study has tested any frequency |
| Empty stomach, avoiding fat before and after | Convention. The underlying idea — that somatostatin tone blunts a GH pulse — is real physiology; the specific protocol has not been tested with this compound |
| Before bed | Convention. Rationale is alignment with nocturnal GH pulsatility; no timing trial supports it |
| Combined with a secretagogue such as ipamorelin | Class-level extrapolation — see below |
| 30 or 60 mcg/kg, weekly or biweekly | Trial-derived — Teichman 2006, and for the conjugate. Roughly 2 to 4 mg for a 70 kg adult |
"Synergistic with ipamorelin"
The synergy is real and it is well documented — in a different pairing. Bowers and colleagues showed in 1990, in eighteen normal men, that GHRP-6 given intravenously alongside native GHRH released growth hormone synergistically, which is good evidence that the two receptor systems act independently and can be stacked.
That study used GHRP-6 and natural GHRH. Ipamorelin did not exist until 1998, and modified GRF(1-29) has never been co-administered with it in any published human trial. The rationale is a reasonable class-level extrapolation and it may well hold. It is not a finding, and anyone presenting it as one is quoting a 1990 paper about two different molecules.
The same arithmetic gap that appears on the ipamorelin page appears here, and larger. The only trial doses on record are 30 to 60 mcg/kg — two to four milligrams for an average adult — of a molecule engineered to persist for days. The conventional dose of this product is 100 micrograms of a molecule that persists for minutes. Those two numbers are not versions of each other.
Storage
Lyophilised, sealed, cold, dark and dry, this is a stable solid. The handling conventions in our storage guide apply. They are conventions carried across from peptides generally rather than published stability data for this compound, and we say so rather than implying a study exists.
Reconstituted in bacteriostatic water, the limiting figure is microbiological rather than chemical: the benzyl alcohol preservative is validated for 28 days, and that is the number to work to for a multi-draw vial. It is not a claim about when the peptide degrades. Our FAQs explain where that figure comes from.
Do not freeze a reconstituted solution. Freezing concentrates solutes at the ice front and drives aggregation, and aggregation is one of the two risks the FDA named for this compound. The damage does not show in the vial.
Reported effects
There is no controlled human safety data for modified GRF(1-29). What follows is drawn from the conjugate, from the regulator's own review, and from the class — each labelled.
What the FDA recorded
CJC-1295 was nominated for the FDA's compounding lists and the nomination was later withdrawn. The agency's published entry for it reads, verbatim:
"Compounded drugs containing CJC-1295 may pose risk for immunogenicity for certain routes of administration and may have complexities with regard to for peptide-related impurities and API characterization. FDA has identified serious adverse events associated with CJC-1295 including increased heart rate and systemic vasodilatory reaction. Available clinical data are limited."
The grammatical slip in the middle of that quotation is the FDA's, reproduced as printed rather than tidied up.
The agency's December 2024 advisory-committee briefing document adds the non-clinical picture: decreased food consumption, soft stools and injection-site irritation in animals, and one genotoxicity study reporting DNA damage in pituitary cells. It also notes that the compound is not well characterised from a physical and chemical standpoint and that information on impurities is lacking.
And the part that cuts the other way
We are printing the whole finding, not the half that suits a cautious page. In that same December 2024 review the FDA concluded that the criteria weigh against placing CJC-1295 — in any of its salt or DAC forms — on the list of substances presenting significant safety risks. It is not in that category, and we are not going to let an omission imply that it is.
Class effects worth knowing about
From tesamorelin's 26-week randomised data, as the closest approved comparator: a measurable increase in the proportion of subjects crossing into diabetic-range HbA1c, dose-dependent IGF-1 elevation with a large minority going above two standard deviations, and a fluid-retention cluster of oedema, arthralgia and paraesthesia. Anyone with impaired glucose tolerance should treat the glycaemic point as the one that matters most.
Raising growth hormone and IGF-1 is also a mechanistic reason for caution in anyone with a current or suspected malignancy, since IGF-1 is mitogenic. That is the reasoning behind the malignancy contraindication on tesamorelin's approved label, and it does not depend on a trial having found harm.
Regulatory status
Approval. Neither form has ever been approved anywhere. Development of the conjugate stopped in 2006.
United States. CJC-1295 is not in category 2 of the FDA's interim bulk drug substances policy. It was nominated for consideration, the nomination was withdrawn by the nominators, and the agency's December 2024 advisory-committee review concluded the criteria weighed against listing it. It is not an approved drug and it is not lawfully compoundable, but the specific claim that it sits on the FDA's significant-safety-risk list is not correct, and we would rather say that than repeat a tidier story.
Canada. Health Canada's public advisory of 9 April 2026 names CJC-1295 among fourteen peptides sold online, states that peptides are generally regulated as prescription drugs in Canada, and states that research-use-only labelling "does not make these products legal or exempt from regulatory requirements." It is not a controlled substance under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The advisory is linked in full in the references below and is worth reading directly rather than through our summary.
Sport. The 2026 WADA Prohibited List, in force from 1 January 2026, covers at section S2.2.4 "growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) and its analogues (e.g. CJC-1293, CJC-1295, sermorelin and tesamorelin)". Modified GRF(1-29) is caught by "and its analogues" whatever the vial calls it. Prohibited at all times, in and out of competition. We read the list through the Austrian Federal Law Gazette's official reproduction of it, because WADA blocks automated access to its own copy — check the official PDF if your career depends on it.
Sentient Biogenix supplies this compound for laboratory research use only. It is not for human or veterinary use.
Questions we actually get
Is "no DAC" just a shorter-acting version of the same drug?
No. They are two molecules with different formulas, different masses and half-lives about a thousand-fold apart. A dose of one is not convertible into a dose of the other, and no published result about one transfers to the other.
Then why does everyone quote the same numbers?
Because the trial data exists only for the conjugate, and the product that sells is the un-conjugated peptide. The numbers got carried across, and once they are in circulation they get recopied. The 2 to 10-fold growth hormone rise over six days is a real finding about a real molecule — just not this one.
What should I check on a certificate of analysis?
The residue count and the mass. 29 residues and about 3,368 Da is the no-DAC peptide; 30 residues and about 3,647 Da is the conjugate. The name is unreliable, the CAS number is used loosely in commerce, and as our own held certificate shows, a laboratory report can carry the wrong molecule's name on it.
Does the short half-life mean it does not work?
Not by itself. Tesamorelin has an eight-minute half-life and an approved label. A secretagogue only has to last long enough to trigger a pituitary pulse. The honest answer is that nobody has measured what this molecule does in a human, so "does it work" has no evidence-based answer in either direction.
Why is your own certificate register showing this as pending?
Because the certificate we were issued named CJC-1295 DAC, which is not what we sell. We held it rather than publish a document that would have filled a gap in the register with the wrong compound. A re-issued version came back still saying DAC. It stays held until it says the right thing.
References
- Jetté L, Léger R, Thibaudeau K, et al. Human growth hormone-releasing factor (hGRF)1-29-albumin bioconjugates activate the GRF receptor on the anterior pituitary in rats: identification of CJC-1295 as a long-lasting GRF analog. Endocrinology 2005;146(7):3052–58. academic.oup.com — the three CJC compounds, all albumin conjugates, the Lys30 linker, the four substitutions defining CJC-1295. Rat study.
- Teichman SL, Neale A, Lawrence B, Gagnon C, Castaigne J-P, Frohman LA. Prolonged stimulation of growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor I secretion by CJC-1295, a long-acting analog of GH-releasing hormone, in healthy adults. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2006;91(3):799–805. academic.oup.com — the 2 to 10-fold GH rise, the 1.5 to 3-fold IGF-1 rise, the 5.8 to 8.1 day half-life, the 30 and 60 mcg/kg doses. The conjugate.
- Soule S, King JA, Millar RP. Incorporation of D-Ala2 in growth hormone-releasing hormone-(1-29)-NH2 increases the half-life and decreases metabolic clearance in normal men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1994;79(4):1208–11. academic.oup.com — ten men, 6.7 versus 4.3 minutes.
- Bowers CY, Reynolds GA, Durham D, Barrera CM, Pezzoli SS, Thorner MO. Growth hormone (GH)-releasing peptide stimulates GH release in normal men and acts synergistically with GH-releasing hormone. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1990;70(4):975–82. academic.oup.com — eighteen men, GHRP-6 plus native GHRH, intravenous. The origin of the synergy claim.
- US Food and Drug Administration. Certain Bulk Drug Substances for Use in Compounding that May Present Significant Safety Risks. fda.gov — the CJC-1295 entry, in the nominated-but-withdrawn table rather than category 2, and the adverse-event language quoted above.
- US Food and Drug Administration. Briefing document, Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee, 4 December 2024. fda.gov — immunogenicity and characterisation concerns, the non-clinical findings, the 2006 withdrawal after a trial death, and the conclusion weighing against listing.
- Health Canada. Think twice before injecting peptides bought online: unauthorized products can seriously harm you. Public advisory, 9 April 2026. recalls-rappels.canada.ca
- ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT00267527 — ConjuChem phase 2, CJC-1295 over 12 weeks in HIV patients with visceral obesity. Terminated; results never published.
- World Anti-Doping Agency. The 2026 Prohibited List, in force 1 January 2026, section S2.2.4 — growth hormone-releasing hormone and its analogues, CJC-1295 named. Read via the Austrian Federal Law Gazette's official reproduction (BGBl. III Nr. 219/2025) because WADA blocks automated access to its own copy.
Where a figure on this page came from the conjugate rather than from the compound in the vial, the page says so at the point it is used. Where a number in circulation has no primary source — the 30-minute half-life, the 100 mcg saturation dose, the ipamorelin synergy — we traced it as far as it goes and reported where it stops.
For laboratory research use only. Not for human or veterinary use. Nothing on this page is dosing guidance, and no figure here should be read as a recommendation.