Almost every claim made about CJC 1295 (NO DAC) online is sourced from a clinical trial that did not test it. CJC-1295 exists in two chemically distinct forms — one carrying a Drug Affinity Complex (DAC) that binds it covalently to serum albumin, one without — and the published human data concerns the DAC form almost exclusively. The two behave differently in circulation, so the literature does not transfer cleanly from one to the other. This article sets out what each study actually measured, in which form, and where the published record stops.
Why GHRH(1–29) is modified in the first place
Growth hormone-releasing hormone is degraded in plasma within minutes. Frohman and colleagues showed that a plasma dipeptidylaminopeptidase cleaves the peptide at its N-terminus, producing a fragment with less than one-thousandth of the biological activity of the intact hormone; they measured a half-life of 17 minutes in vitro and 6.8 minutes after intravenous injection [1]. The first 29 residues carry the receptor-binding activity, which is why GHRH(1–29) — sermorelin — became the working fragment, and why substituting the residues at the cleavage site is the obvious way to slow that degradation down.
CJC-1295 is a tetrasubstituted form of human GRF(1–29): four amino acid substitutions that resist enzymatic cleavage and stabilise the molecule. That much is common to both forms sold under the name.
What the DAC is, and what it does
The DAC is a separate structural addition, not a formulation difference. In the study that identified the compound, Jetté and colleagues attached an Nε-3-maleimidopropionamide derivative of lysine to the C-terminus of the tetrasubstituted hGRF(1–29) peptide. The maleimide reacts with a free thiol on circulating serum albumin, forming a covalent bioconjugate. In rats, subcutaneous administration produced a fourfold increase in growth hormone response over two hours compared with native hGRF(1–29), and the compound was still detectable in plasma beyond 72 hours, with Western blot confirming it was circulating as an albumin-bound species [2].
Remove that C-terminal addition and you have the no-DAC peptide — also written as Modified GRF (1–29) or Mod GRF 1-29 — which has no albumin anchor and no mechanism for multi-day persistence. Identity details for the form we supply are set out in the CJC-1295 (no DAC) monograph.
The human trials tested the DAC form
Teichman and colleagues ran two randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind trials in healthy adults aged 21 to 61, lasting 28 and 49 days. A single subcutaneous injection raised mean plasma growth hormone concentrations two- to tenfold for six days or more, and mean plasma IGF-I concentrations 1.5- to threefold for nine to eleven days. The estimated half-life of the compound was 5.8 to 8.1 days. With repeated dosing, mean IGF-I levels remained above baseline for up to 28 days [3]. Those numbers — the ones that appear in most supplier copy — describe the DAC form.
Ionescu and Frohman examined what continuous receptor stimulation does to the shape of growth hormone secretion. In healthy men aged 20 to 40, sampled overnight at 20-minute intervals before and one week after administration, the frequency and magnitude of GH secretory pulses were unaltered, but basal trough GH levels rose 7.5-fold and mean GH by roughly 46%. IGF-I rose 45%, and that rise did not correlate with any parameter of pulsatile GH secretion [4]. Again, the DAC form.
Both papers are legitimate, well-conducted work. The error is not in the studies; it is in citing them against a molecule they did not contain.
What the published record does not cover
We have not identified a peer-reviewed human pharmacokinetic study of the no-DAC tetrasubstituted analogue. The short half-life figures widely quoted for it — usually around 30 minutes — circulate without a primary citation attached, and we are not in a position to confirm or refute them. That is a gap in the evidence, not a finding in either direction, and it is the single most useful thing to know before reading anything else written about this compound.
Nor does the DAC literature say anything about what happens when the peptide is combined with a growth hormone secretagogue such as ipamorelin. Combination pharmacology is a separate question requiring its own studies, and pairing two compounds does not license transferring either one’s data to the pair.
The naming problem is an analytical problem
Because both forms circulate under one name, the name alone cannot tell you what is in a vial. Henninge and colleagues at the Norwegian doping control laboratory analysed an unidentified pharmaceutical preparation submitted by the authorities and, using liquid chromatography with high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry, characterised a 29-amino-acid peptide with a C-terminal amide function, reported as CJC-1295 [5]. The authors noted the concern that peptide drugs which have not completed clinical trials reach circulation through informal supply.
The practical consequence for anyone sourcing research material is that the label is a claim and the certificate of analysis is the evidence. Our material is released against reverse-phase HPLC purity of ≥98% with a lot-matched certificate; the vial label reads “CJC 1295 (NO DAC)”. Where a compound has two forms with different behaviour, the form should be stated on the label, on the listing and on the paperwork — and it should be the same form in all three places.
Regulatory status, stated plainly
Neither form of CJC-1295 is an authorised medicine in the United Kingdom, and we are not aware of a marketing authorisation for either form in any jurisdiction. In the United States, the FDA’s list of bulk drug substances that may present significant safety risks in compounding records CJC-1295 among substances nominated and subsequently withdrawn, with the note that compounded drugs containing it “may pose risk for immunogenicity for certain routes of administration” [6].
The nearest relative that did reach approval is sermorelin — GHRH(1–29) itself. Marketed as Geref by EMD Serono under NDA 20-443 for idiopathic growth hormone deficiency in children with growth failure and NDA 19-863 as a pituitary function test, it was discontinued by the manufacturer in 2008, with withdrawal of approval effective 18 June 2009. The FDA later determined that the products were not withdrawn for reasons of safety or effectiveness [7]. A second GHRH analogue, tesamorelin, is an approved prescription medicine (Egrifta) and is described as such throughout our index.
In sport, the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List covers growth hormone-releasing hormone and its analogues under section S2, naming CJC-1295 and sermorelin among its examples, and growth hormone secretagogues including ipamorelin in the same section [8]. These substances are prohibited at all times, in and out of competition.
Reading any claim about this compound
Three questions resolve most of the confusion in this corner of the literature.
- Which form was tested? If a claim rests on multi-day growth hormone or IGF-I elevation, it rests on the DAC form. Check the methods section, not the abstract’s shorthand.
- Which model system? Jetté 2005 is a rat study; Teichman 2006 and Ionescu 2006 are human trials. The distinction matters as much as the molecule.
- Is the endpoint pituitary output, or something downstream of it? The published endpoints are hormone concentrations and secretory dynamics. Claims about outcomes further downstream are not in these papers.
Applied honestly, those three questions rule out most of what is written about this compound — which is the point of asking them.
Availability
We list CJC 1295 (NO DAC) 5 mg as lyophilised powder, ≥98% purity by RP-HPLC, supplied with a lot-matched certificate of analysis. The full entry, including identity data and the primary literature, is in the Compound Index, alongside the other twenty compounds we stock.
Research use only. Not for human consumption. Nothing above is guidance for use in humans or animals, and the studies described are accounts of published research on the molecules named, not statements about the properties, effects or suitability of anything Peptivitalis supplies.
References
- Frohman LA, Downs TR, Williams TC, Heimer EP, Pan YC, Felix AM. Rapid enzymatic degradation of growth hormone-releasing hormone by plasma in vitro and in vivo to a biologically inactive product cleaved at the NH2 terminus. J Clin Invest. 1986;78(4):906–13. DOI 10.1172/JCI112679
- 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):3052–8. DOI 10.1210/en.2004-1286 · PMID 15817669
- Teichman SL, Neale A, Lawrence B, Gagnon C, Castaigne JP, Frohman LA. Prolonged stimulation of growth hormone (GH) 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. DOI 10.1210/jc.2005-1536 (DAC form)
- Ionescu M, Frohman LA. Pulsatile secretion of growth hormone (GH) persists during continuous stimulation by CJC-1295, a long-acting GH-releasing hormone analog. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2006;91(12):4792–7. DOI 10.1210/jc.2006-1702 · PMID 17018654 (DAC form)
- Henninge J, Pepaj M, Hullstein I, Hemmersbach P. Identification of CJC-1295, a growth-hormone-releasing peptide, in an unknown pharmaceutical preparation. Drug Test Anal. 2010;2(11–12):647–50. DOI 10.1002/dta.233 · PMID 21204297
- US Food and Drug Administration. Certain bulk drug substances for use in compounding that may present significant safety risks. Page last updated 22 April 2026.
- Federal Register. Determination that GEREF (sermorelin acetate) injection was not withdrawn from sale for reasons of safety or effectiveness. 78 FR 14095, 4 March 2013.
- World Anti-Doping Agency. Prohibited List, section S2: peptide hormones, growth factors, related substances and mimetics.