CJC-1295 Peptide: What It Is, DAC vs No DAC

What Is CJC-1295?

CJC-1295 is a synthetic copy of growth hormone-releasing hormone, the signal your hypothalamus sends to the pituitary when it wants growth hormone released. It is not growth hormone, and it cannot do anything a working pituitary was not already capable of. It turns up the request. The gland still decides how to answer, and the brake hormone somatostatin still has its say.

It exists because natural GHRH makes a terrible drug. In 1986 Lawrence Frohman and colleagues injected it into healthy volunteers and clocked its half-life at 6.8 minutes. A plasma enzyme clips the first two amino acids off almost immediately, and what remains has less than a thousandth of the original activity.

Frohman LA, Downs TR, Williams TC, et al. "Rapid enzymatic degradation of growth hormone-releasing hormone by plasma in vitro and in vivo." Journal of Clinical Investigation. 1986;78(4):906-13. View study

The first 29 amino acids of GHRH carry its receptor activity. That fragment became sermorelin Explore PeRxSermorelinThe Growth Hormone OptimizerView peptide , FDA-approved from 1997 until its manufacturer discontinued it in 2008. ConjuChem Biotechnologies of Montreal took the same fragment and changed it twice. First came four amino acid swaps at positions 2, 8, 15, and 27, including a D-alanine at position 2 that removes the spot where the enzyme cuts. Then came an extra lysine on the tail carrying a reactive group that bonds to albumin, the most abundant protein in blood. ConjuChem called that second trick the Drug Affinity Complex, or DAC. In the 2005 paper describing it, the molecule stayed detectable in rat plasma beyond 72 hours.

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. Rat and cell-culture study. View study

CJC-1295 DAC vs No DAC: The Short Answer

CJC-1295 with DAC is a once-weekly molecule. CJC-1295 without DAC is a once-daily molecule. They are not two strengths of one product. The DAC version keeps the albumin anchor, circulates for about a week, and is dosed in milligrams. The no-DAC version, also sold as Modified GRF 1-29 or Mod GRF, is the four-substitution backbone with the anchor left off. It acts briefly, is dosed in micrograms, and is the form typically used in CJC-1295/Ipamorelin Explore PeRxCJC-1295/IpamorelinPulsatile Growth Hormone ReleaseView peptide blends. Doses, schedules, and study results do not transfer from one to the other.

So which is better? It depends on which problem you would rather have. DAC wins on convenience, one injection a week instead of seven, and it is the only form with human pharmacokinetic data. No-DAC wins on control and on how closely the hormone pattern resembles a normal night. Clinics that pair it with ipamorelin, this one included, generally land on no-DAC, for reasons covered below.

Ionescu M, Frohman LA. "Pulsatile secretion of growth hormone (GH) persists during continuous stimulation by CJC-1295, a long-acting GH-releasing hormone analog." Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. 2006;91(12):4792-7. Healthy men, single dose of the DAC form. View study

How to Tell Which CJC-1295 Is in a Vial

The naming mess is not only a consumer problem. When FDA chemists reviewed CJC-1295 for an advisory committee in December 2024, they opened by noting "inconsistent naming conventions." CJC-1295 is a common name with no official nonproprietary name behind it, and the agency ended up evaluating five substances built on two distinct active molecules. Both nominators named a no-DAC form while submitting identifiers and clinical references that belonged to the DAC form.

The confusion has a traceable origin. In 2009, Norwegian police and customs handed an unlabeled preparation to the national doping control laboratory. Mass spectrometry found a 29-amino-acid peptide matching what was being marketed as CJC-1295. Twenty-nine residues is the backbone without the lysine anchor. The FDA review cites that report as the first appearance of the no-DAC form in the literature, so the short-acting version entered the record through a seizure and not a clinical trial.

Henninge J, Pepaj M, Hullstein I, Hemmersbach P. "Identification of CJC-1295, a growth-hormone-releasing peptide, in an unknown pharmaceutical preparation." Drug Testing and Analysis. 2010;2(11-12):647-50. View study

In practice, four clues settle it. The label. A pharmacy-dispensed vial should say "without DAC," "no DAC," or "Modified GRF 1-29" if that is what it holds. "CJC-1295" alone tells you nothing: the original papers use the bare name for the DAC molecule, and the FDA review used it for the form without DAC. The dose units. Milligrams point to DAC, micrograms to no-DAC. The schedule. Weekly means DAC, nightly means no-DAC. The paperwork. A certificate of analysis Read nextHow to Read a Peptide COAA Certificate of Analysis is the lab report behind a peptide vial. Learn to read one line by line: identity, purity, net peptide content, sterility, and endotoxin. Then learn the red flags that separate a real prescription COA from the screenshot a gray-market vendor pastes into a product page.Read article lists sequence length and molecular weight. The DAC form is 30 residues and about 3,647 daltons. The no-DAC form is 29 residues and lighter.

If a seller cannot answer the DAC question in one sentence, that is an answer of its own. The failure mode is a thousandfold dosing error, the subject of our CJC-1295/Ipamorelin dosage chart Read nextCJC-1295/Ipamorelin Dosage Chart: Units & TimingMost CJC-1295 ipamorelin dosage advice online is written in milligrams for a different molecule, or assumes you are juggling two separate vials. PeRx ships one combined vial at a fixed concentration, ready to use. This page converts insulin-syringe units into micrograms of each peptide at that concentration, explains the bedtime and empty-stomach rules, walks through 5-on-2-off and 3-months-on cycling, and prices out a month, as of August 31, 2026.Read article .

How CJC-1295 Works

Both forms do the same thing at the receptor. They bind the GHRH receptor on the somatotroph cells of the anterior pituitary, and the cell responds by making and releasing growth hormone. That GH travels to the liver, which answers with IGF-1, the hormone behind much of what people attribute to growth hormone. The peptide borrows an existing signal and makes it louder or longer.

The feedback point usually gets oversold. A GHRH analog cannot force unlimited growth hormone out of the pituitary, because somatostatin keeps cutting release off. That is a real margin over injecting the hormone itself, covered in peptides vs HGH Read nextPeptides vs HGH: Safety, Cost, and Results ComparedDirect human growth hormone has been around since the 1980s. Growth hormone peptides like Sermorelin, CJC-1295/Ipamorelin, and Tesamorelin are the modern alternative. The two approaches reach the same destination through completely different routes, with very different safety profiles, cost structures, and outcomes. Here is the honest comparison.Read article , but it is not immunity: at the highest dose in the Teichman trial, IGF-1 went above the normal range.

CJC-1295 is rarely used alone. GHRH sets how much growth hormone the gland is ready to release, and a second pathway, the ghrelin receptor, helps trigger the release. Pairing it with a ghrelin-receptor agonist such as ipamorelin Read nextIpamorelin Peptide: What It Does, Doses, EvidenceIpamorelin is a five-amino-acid peptide that tells the pituitary to release a pulse of growth hormone. Its reputation rests on one word, selective, and that word traces back to a 1998 experiment in pigs. The human record is narrower than most pages admit: one dosing study by IV infusion and a surgical program that failed. This guide covers what ipamorelin does, where the dose numbers online come from, what FDA reviewers concluded in 2024, and why we only prescribe it paired.Read article works both switches. See why we pair CJC-1295 with ipamorelin Read nextWhy We Pair CJC-1295 With Ipamorelin (No-DAC)CJC-1295 and Ipamorelin act on two different receptors, so together they produce a bigger, cleaner growth-hormone pulse than either one alone. The detail most people miss: we use the no-DAC version of CJC-1295 on purpose. That choice is what keeps the release pulsatile and physiologic instead of a flat, all-day elevation. Here is the reasoning behind the pairing.Read article and the full CJC-1295/Ipamorelin guide Read nextCJC-1295 Ipamorelin: The Complete GuideCJC-1295 Ipamorelin pairs a GHRH signal that primes growth hormone release with a clean pulse trigger that fires it. After age 30, your body produces roughly 15% less growth hormone every decade. This stack doesn't replace what you've lost with synthetic hormones. It tells your body to start making more of its own again. Together, the two peptides form the most popular growth hormone optimization protocol in peptide therapy.Read article . This page stays with the single molecule.

What the Human Research Actually Shows

Start with the limitation, because it shapes everything else. The published human record consists of two papers from 2006 covering three small studies in healthy adults, all using the DAC form, none longer than 49 days, and none measuring muscle, fat, sleep, or any outcome a patient would care about. They measured hormones. Everything else said about CJC-1295 is inference from those hormone changes, from animal work, or from clinical habit.

The main trial is Teichman and colleagues. It was really two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies in healthy adults aged 21 to 61: single ascending doses in the first, two or three weekly or biweekly doses in the second. After one injection, mean growth hormone rose 2 to 10-fold for six days or longer and IGF-1 rose 1.5 to 3-fold for 9 to 11 days. After repeated doses, IGF-1 stayed above baseline for up to 28 days. The authors reported no serious adverse reactions.

Teichman SL, Neale A, Lawrence B, et al. "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." Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. 2006;91(3):799-805. DAC form. View study

"No serious adverse reactions" is accurate and incomplete. When FDA staff went back through the paper for the 2024 committee, they reported that 94 percent of subjects in the first study had an adverse event after a single injection, with injection-site reactions in roughly 70 percent of those given the drug. In the repeat-dose study, every subject on active drug had one. Headache, flushing, diarrhea, nausea, transient dizziness and low blood pressure, and what reviewers called systemic vasodilatory reactions were also recorded. None was classed as serious. It is still a busier picture than "well tolerated" suggests.

Then there is the trial that never published. ConjuChem moved the DAC form into a Phase 2 study in people with HIV-associated lipodystrophy. According to the FDA review, a participant developed chest discomfort two hours after an eleventh weekly dose, an ECG confirmed an acute heart attack, and the participant died about an hour later. The attending physician judged the most likely cause to be symptom-free coronary artery disease with a ruptured plaque. The study was terminated, its data were never released, and development did not resume. FDA reviewers described their own sources for this as anecdotal reports, which tells you how thin the public record is.

US Food and Drug Administration, Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee. Meeting transcript, Topic 1: CJC-1295-related bulk drug substances. December 4, 2024. Source for the naming discussion, adverse event summary, Phase 2 account, and committee votes. View study

CJC-1295 Benefits: What Is Claimed vs What Is Shown

Benefit lists for CJC-1295 read the same on every site because they are lists of what growth hormone does, pasted under the name of a peptide that raises it. That is a reasonable hypothesis and a weak proof. Here are the usual claims with the evidence tier attached.

CJC-1295 for Muscle Growth

Plenty of people arrive at CJC-1295 through a muscle-growth search, and it is the claim in greatest need of a reality check. No study has measured muscle mass or strength in anyone taking CJC-1295. The closest usable evidence is from growth hormone itself. A systematic review in the Annals of Internal Medicine pooled randomized trials of injected GH in lean, fit adults averaging 27 years old and found lean body mass rose by 2.1 kilograms. Strength did not improve. Exercise capacity did not improve either, and swelling and fatigue were more common in the treated groups. Part of that added lean mass may be retained water, a known effect of growth hormone.

Liu H, Bravata DM, Olkin I, et al. "Systematic review: the effects of growth hormone on athletic performance." Annals of Internal Medicine. 2008;148(10):747-58. Evidence on injected GH, not on CJC-1295. View study

A secretagogue produces a smaller, feedback-limited rise than the doses in those trials, so expecting more from CJC-1295 than injected GH delivered is hard to justify. The realistic case is modest support for body composition and recovery in someone whose training, protein, and sleep are already in order, judged over months. More in our guide to peptide therapy for muscle growth Read nextMuscle Growth Peptides 2026: What Actually WorksPeptides are signaling tools, not muscle-building shortcuts. The useful clinical question isn't whether they build muscle. It's which pathway you're trying to influence, whether the effect is big enough to matter alongside training and nutrition, and whether you've matched the mechanism to the actual bottleneck.Read article .

Why We Prescribe No-DAC, and What It Costs You

A clinic that prescribes CJC-1295 has to choose a form, and the choice is less obvious than most articles make it sound. The DAC form has the human data and the easy schedule. We chose the other one, for three reasons.

The trough. Growth hormone in a healthy adult sits near zero for most of the day and arrives in bursts, the largest in early deep sleep. A short-acting GHRH analog at bedtime enlarges that burst and then gets out of the way. The DAC form keeps the bursts but lifts the quiet periods between them more than sevenfold, and with weekly dosing that floor never settles. Nobody has shown the raised floor to be harmful, and nobody has shown it to be safe over years.

Reversibility. If a nightly dose leaves you flushed, puffy in the hands, or with a headache, you skip the next one and the signal is gone. A DAC injection cannot be taken back, and in the published data the drug remained measurable for 10 to 13 days after a single shot. For a compound with a short human safety record, we would rather be able to stop on a day's notice than a fortnight's.

Where the safety signals sit. The near-universal injection-site reactions, the vasodilatory episodes, the increased heart rate the FDA cites, and the halted Phase 2 trial all belong to the DAC molecule. That does not prove the no-DAC form is cleaner, because nobody has run the study that would show it. It does mean the documented problems attach to the form we do not prescribe.

Now the costs, plainly. You inject every evening instead of once a week. And you are taking the form with less direct human evidence, on the strength of reasoning: same receptor and same short-acting behavior as sermorelin, with better resistance to breakdown. If that trade does not sit well with you, plain sermorelin Read nextSermorelin Peptide: Benefits, Dosing & How It WorksEvery growth hormone peptide used today traces its lineage back to this molecule. Sermorelin was once FDA-approved, then abandoned for commercial reasons. Now it's having a second act as the safest entry point into growth hormone optimization. The peptide that was too gentle for children turned out to be exactly what adults needed.Read article is the conservative single-pathway choice, and CJC-1295 vs sermorelin Read nextCJC-1295 vs Sermorelin 2026: Which GH Peptide Wins?Both stimulate your pituitary gland to produce more growth hormone. Both are GHRH receptor agonists. The CJC-1295 in the PeRx combo is the no-DAC version (Modified GRF 1-29), so both peptides are short-acting and pulsatile. The real differences are CJC-1295/Ipamorelin's dual-pathway design and greater enzyme resistance. Here is the honest comparison.Read article covers how the two differ.

Safety and Screening

Beyond the trial findings above, expect the effects that follow from higher growth hormone in general: water retention, puffy or tingling hands, joint aches, and a nudge toward higher blood sugar. FDA reviewers noted that the risks printed on every approved growth hormone label have not been shown to be absent with CJC-1295. Mention diabetes or prediabetes on the intake, because growth hormone pushes against insulin.

Two uncertainties get taken seriously at screening. No carcinogenicity study of CJC-1295 has been run, and FDA pharmacologists noted DNA-damage signals in laboratory testing of the DAC form and said pituitary overgrowth from long-term stimulation cannot be ruled out. None of that has been seen in people, but the published human exposure is small and lasted weeks. Because growth hormone and IGF-1 are growth signals, active or recent cancer excludes you. So do pregnancy and breastfeeding, where no data exists.

FDA and Anti-Doping Status

That is a less comfortable summary than most clinic pages offer, and it is the accurate one. The FDA category document updated May 14, 2026 lists CJC-1295 in no category at all, which leaves its compounding status unsettled in either direction. It was not part of the April 2026 action that moved twelve other peptides out of Category 2, having already left that list, and it was not on the agenda of the July 2026 committee meeting. We will update this section when the picture changes. Related reading: is CJC-1295/Ipamorelin FDA approved Read nextIs CJC-1295/Ipamorelin FDA Approved? (2026 Answer)The short answer is no. CJC-1295 and Ipamorelin are not FDA-approved drugs. They are compounded medications, prescribed by licensed providers and prepared by regulated pharmacies. Here is what that actually means for you, how it compares to FDA-approved peptides, and why the distinction matters less than most people think.Read article and FDA-approved peptides Read nextFDA-Approved Peptides: The Full List (2026)Peptide drugs have been FDA-approved for over forty years, from recombinant insulin in 1982 to tirzepatide in 2022. Most of the peptides people actually search for, though, are not on that list. This guide lays out every FDA-approved peptide drug with its brand names and approval year, explains the difference between an approved drug, a compounded medication, and a research chemical, and covers where the 2026 FDA compounding review left peptides like BPC-157. Current as of August 2026.Read article .

Anti-doping is simpler. The 2026 World Anti-Doping Agency Prohibited List names CJC-1295 in section S2.2.4, alongside CJC-1293, sermorelin, and tesamorelin Explore PeRxTesamorelinMetabolic Optimization PeptideView peptide , as a GHRH analog prohibited at all times, in and out of competition. Ipamorelin is named in the same section. If you compete under WADA, USADA, or a league policy built on that list, neither form is an option. Peptide therapy for athletes Read nextPeptide Therapy for Athletes: WADA Rules & UseAthletes were among the earliest adopters of peptide therapy, and for good reason. Faster recovery between training sessions, accelerated injury repair, and improved body composition are directly relevant to athletic performance. But there are rules, and understanding the competitive landscape matters as much as the pharmacology.Read article goes through what is and is not permitted.

How to Get CJC-1295

There are two supply chains. Research-chemical sites sell powder labeled not for human use, in whichever form the supplier happened to send, with no prescription and no verification. The prescription route starts with a health intake, goes to a licensed provider for review, and ends with a vial from a US 503A compounding pharmacy whose label states which form it contains. Research peptides vs prescription peptides Read nextResearch Peptides vs Prescription Peptides (2026)An honest comparison for the patient who already uses peptides, what the 'Not for Human Use' label actually means, the real quality differences, and the practical steps to switch from research-chemical sourcing to a prescription supply.Read article covers the gap.

If you came looking for a standalone CJC-1295 vial, we do not carry one. A GHRH analog alone works one of the two switches that control growth hormone release, so the prescribed format builds the second one in. There is no DAC product either, for the reasons above.

CJC-1295/Ipamorelin

No-DAC CJC-1295 and ipamorelin in one 5 mL vial, at 1.2 mg/mL and 2 mg/mL, compounded by a US 503A pharmacy. One small subcutaneous injection in the evening sets both doses at once. It ships fully reconstituted and ready to use, packed cold, and the insulin syringes and alcohol swabs come in the same box.

From $299 for a one-month supply. Checkout stores your card without charging it, and the charge goes through only once a provider has approved the prescription.

The no-DAC form, labeled as such, in a single ready-to-use vial.

Shop Now

Your PeRx provider prescribes the protocol, and the label on your vial is the final word on dose. The dosage chart Read nextCJC-1295/Ipamorelin Dosage Chart: Units & TimingMost CJC-1295 ipamorelin dosage advice online is written in milligrams for a different molecule, or assumes you are juggling two separate vials. PeRx ships one combined vial at a fixed concentration, ready to use. This page converts insulin-syringe units into micrograms of each peptide at that concentration, explains the bedtime and empty-stomach rules, walks through 5-on-2-off and 3-months-on cycling, and prices out a month, as of August 31, 2026.Read article converts syringe units to micrograms, and where to inject CJC-1295/Ipamorelin Read nextWhere to Inject CJC-1295/Ipamorelin: Sites, TimingCJC-1295/Ipamorelin is a single subcutaneous injection, and for this stack the two decisions that matter most are where you put it and when. The four standard sites all work, but bedtime timing and an empty stomach change the result more than site choice does. Here is the practical guide patients ask for after their first vial arrives.Read article covers placement. Still deciding among the growth hormone peptides? Start with the sermorelin, ipamorelin, and tesamorelin comparison Read nextSermorelin vs Ipamorelin vs Tesamorelin: Which Fits?All three raise your own growth hormone, but they pull different levers, last for different amounts of time, and suit different goals. This is a decision guide, not a spec sheet: match the peptide to what you actually want.Read article .

CJC-1295: Common Questions

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." Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. 1994;79(4):1208-11. View study