CJC-1295 Dosage: What the Studies Show for DAC and No-DAC

Is There a Proven CJC-1295 Dosage?

No CJC-1295 dosage is established for any use, and FDA has approved no CJC-1295 product. The only published human studies are three small ones in healthy adults. All used the DAC form, built to bind to albumin, the main protein in blood. Doses were set by body weight, in micrograms per kilogram (mcg/kg).

FDA reviewed CJC-1295 in 2024. In December 2024 an FDA advisory committee voted against adding it to the 503A bulks list, FDA's minutes show. It is one list of bulk ingredients pharmacies may compound with. FDA found no published study in people with any disease. It found no study of the no-DAC form in people at all.

So this page does not give a dose to take. Every number below is what a named study or FDA document reported. None is a recommendation.

What Does DAC Change in CJC-1295?

FDA's review describes two versions. CJC-1295 without DAC is a man-made 29-amino-acid peptide based on GHRH, with four amino acids swapped. GHRH is the brain hormone that tells the pituitary gland to release growth hormone. FDA's 2024 review

CJC-1295 with DAC adds one more unit at the tail end of the chain. It is a lysine, one of the amino acids, carrying a maleimidopropionamide (MPA) group. MPA is a reactive chemical group that lets the peptide attach to proteins. DAC stands for Drug Affinity Complex. FDA says this lets the peptide bind to albumin in the body.

Ionescu and Frohman describe that bond as permanent. FDA says the bond may contribute to the longer half-life, the time for half a dose to clear, though direct evidence is lacking. In Teichman's trials, the estimated half-life of the DAC form was 5.8-8.1 days. Teichman et al. 2006

FDA found no study showing whether the no-DAC form works in the body at all. It also flagged a naming risk. At least nine names have been used for five forms, so a patient may get a different form from the one ordered.

In a rodent (mouse) study, mice born without GHRH got 2 mcg of CJC-1295 every day for 5 weeks. They reached normal body weight and length. The authors also saw signs that growth hormone cells in the pituitary had multiplied. Alba et al. 2006

What does DAC do to your growth hormone pulses?

Ionescu and Frohman tested that in 2006, in 12 healthy men given one shot of 60 or 90 mcg/kg. Basal growth hormone, the trough level between pulses, rose about 7.5-fold. How often the pulses came did not change. Nor did their size. Ionescu and Frohman 2006 The pulses still happened. They simply started from a higher floor. Mean growth hormone rose 46%, the authors report. IGF-1, a growth factor made in response to growth hormone, rose 45%.

A third study, by Sackmann-Sala and colleagues, looked at blood proteins in 11 of those men. FDA notes that each got one shot of 60-90 mcg/kg, and that the paper did not discuss side effects. Sackmann-Sala et al. 2009

What CJC-1295 DAC Dosage per Week Did the Studies Use?

No weekly dose is established. The closest data is Teichman's second trial in healthy adults. It gave two or three shots under the skin, a week or two weeks apart. FDA's review sets out the four groups.

• 30 mcg/kg on days 0 and 14.
• 60 mcg/kg on days 0 and 14.
• 30 mcg/kg on days 0, 7 and 14.
• 20 mcg/kg on days 0, 7 and 14.

Each group had six people, and one in each got a placebo, a dummy shot. After repeat doses, mean IGF-1 stayed above baseline for up to 28 days. The authors saw a cumulative effect, with levels building dose on dose. Teichman et al. 2006

Teichman's first trial gave one shot, at one of four rising doses up to 250 mcg/kg. One shot raised mean growth hormone 2- to 10-fold for 6 days or more. IGF-1 rose 1.5- to 3-fold for 9-11 days.

IGF-1 went above the normal range for age and sex only at 250 mcg/kg, FDA notes. The authors called it safe and fairly well tolerated, especially at 30 or 60 mcg/kg.

For the vial maths, see the CJC-1295 Ipamorelin dosage calculator.

Is There a CJC-1295 No DAC Dosage per Day?

No. FDA found no study in which the no-DAC form was given to people. So there is no human dose, no human half-life and no human safety data for it.

FDA says the first mention of a no-DAC form in the literature appears to come from a 2009 seizure. Norwegian police and customs sent a preparation to a doping lab. The lab found a 29-amino-acid peptide without DAC. Henninge et al. 2010

The daily doses quoted online come from websites, not trials. FDA's review lists what sites say, mostly without naming the form. They run from 100 mcg a week to 100-400 mcg a day, and one site gave a 2,000 mcg weekly maximum. For fitness and bodybuilding, sites gave 250 mcg a day, up to 100-200 mcg two or three times a day.

What Side Effects Came With Each CJC-1295 Dosage?

FDA counted 63 healthy adults across three studies: Teichman 2006, Ionescu and Frohman 2006, and Sackmann-Sala 2009. Of them, 87% were men. Most got a single shot. Injection-site reactions were the most common problem. FDA reports these rates from Teichman's first trial, among people given the drug.

• Injection-site reactions, meaning irritation, redness, hardness, pain or itching: about 70%, and rare on placebo.
• Headache: 63%, against 14% on placebo.
• Diarrhoea: 43%, and none on placebo.
• Flushing, warmth and brief low blood pressure: 30%, and none on placebo.
• Hive-like rashes at the injection site: almost 30%.

All but the rashes were more common at 125 or 250 mcg/kg. In the second trial, flushing came within 30 minutes of a shot and cleared within 1-2 hours. It followed 40% of low-dose shots and 100% of high-dose shots. One person had brief leg muscle twitches and some loss of coordination after a second 30 mcg/kg shot. Two had brief dizziness and low blood pressure after a first 30 mcg/kg shot, which did not come back. Teichman reported no serious adverse reactions.

FDA lists more from the second trial. Everyone given the drug had injection-site reactions. Mild redness at the site also showed in three of four people on placebo (75%). Headache ranged from 20% to 80% by dose group, against 50% on placebo. Nausea or stomach pain came up in 20%, and none on placebo.

In Ionescu and Frohman's study, FDA lists a rise in heart rate that grew with the dose. It also lists brief redness and tenderness at the injection site. The authors reported no serious adverse events.

FDA's 2024 review describes, from anecdotal reports, a 192-patient HIV lipodystrophy trial that was stopped in 2006 and never published. HIV lipodystrophy is abnormal fat change in people with HIV. Its registry record, NCT00267527, is marked terminated and lists 120 people.

Per those reports, weekly doses rose over three weeks, against placebo. They went from 60 to 90 to 120, or from 60 to 120 to 240 mcg/kg. One patient had chest discomfort about two hours after an 11th weekly dose. An ECG, a heart tracing, confirmed a heart attack. The patient died about one hour later. The attending doctor's most likely explanation was coronary artery disease that had caused no symptoms. FDA briefing document, PCAC 4 December 2024

What is the long-term safety gap?

Here is the honest limit of the evidence. FDA found no cancer studies of CJC-1295. So FDA says overgrowth or tumours of the pituitary with long-term use cannot be ruled out. FDA also reports genotoxic safety signals, meaning DNA damage, for the DAC form. They were seen in mouse pituitary cells in the lab and in a rodent (mouse) study.

In rodent (rat) and dog studies, daily shots for up to 14 days showed bleeding, inflammation and tissue death at the injection site. FDA also found no data to suggest CJC-1295 would avoid the risks listed for approved growth hormone. Those include diabetes and fluid retention. Always work with a qualified clinician before making changes to your health protocol.

Has CJC-1295 Been Studied With Ipamorelin?

The three human studies FDA found gave CJC-1295 alone. FDA notes that one outsourcing facility, a type of large-batch compounder, reported mixing CJC-1295 with Ipamorelin in 2019 and 2020.

Ipamorelin acts on a different receptor from GHRH, the one used by growth hormone releasing peptides. In pigs, it did not raise ACTH or cortisol, two stress hormones, beyond what GHRH did. Raun et al. In October 2024 an FDA advisory committee voted against adding ipamorelin to the 503A bulks list, one list of bulk ingredients pharmacies may compound with.

The blend has its own guide. For what has and has not been tested, read our CJC-1295 and Ipamorelin guide.

How Does CJC-1295 Compare With Tesamorelin and Sermorelin?

Three near neighbours come up most often. Each one differs in a way that matters.

Tesamorelin: a modified version of GHRH, 44 amino acids long. FDA approved it, as Egrifta, to reduce excess belly fat in adults with HIV and lipodystrophy. Its label gives a half-life of 8 minutes in healthy people, far shorter than the DAC form's. Egrifta SV label Our Tesamorelin comparison and alternatives guide has the full breakdown.

Sermorelin: sold in the US as Geref, an FDA-approved drug now listed as discontinued. Drugs@FDA

Exogenous HGH: growth hormone itself, given directly. FDA notes it replaces the body's own hormone, so it works even when the pituitary cannot respond. CJC-1295 works upstream, through GHRH. FDA says people with complete growth hormone deficiency will not respond to it. See our secretagogue and HGH comparison.

What Does the CJC-1295 Dosage Chart Show?

Here is every human dose on record in the sources above, side by side. It is a record of studies, not a dosing guide.

Bibliography

• Teichman SL et al. (2006). 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. PMID 16352683.
• Ionescu M, Frohman LA (2006). Pulsatile secretion of growth hormone (GH) persists during continuous stimulation by CJC-1295, a long-acting GH-releasing hormone analog. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. PMID 17018654.
• Alba M et al. (2006). Once-daily administration of CJC-1295, a long-acting growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) analog, normalizes growth in the GHRH knockout mouse. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. PMID 16822960.
• Sackmann-Sala L et al. (2009). Activation of the GH/IGF-1 axis by CJC-1295, a long-acting GHRH analog, results in serum protein profile changes in normal adult subjects. Growth Horm IGF Res. PMID 19386527.
• Raun K et al. (1998). Ipamorelin, the first selective growth hormone secretagogue. Eur J Endocrinol. PMID 9849822.
• Henninge J et al. (2010). Identification of CJC-1295, a growth-hormone-releasing peptide, in an unknown pharmaceutical preparation. Drug Test Anal. PMID 21204297.
• FDA briefing document, PCAC 4 December 2024 (CJC-1295).
• FDA final summary minutes, PCAC 4 December 2024.
• FDA final summary minutes, PCAC 29 October 2024.
• ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00267527. A Study to Evaluate CJC 1295 in HIV Patients With Visceral Obesity (ConjuChem, terminated).
• EGRIFTA SV (tesamorelin) prescribing information, DailyMed.
• Drugs@FDA, Geref (sermorelin), NDA 019863.

This content is for educational purposes only. These compounds are intended for research use. Nothing here is medical advice. Always work with a qualified clinician before making changes to your health protocol.