What is inside
Products sold under this name put two separate lab-made peptides in one vial. The first is CJC-1295 without DAC, also called Modified GRF (1-29): a copy of the active front end of growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) with four building blocks swapped. The second is ipamorelin, a five-building-block chain that acts on the ghrelin receptor. Both prompt the pituitary gland to release the body’s own growth hormone, but through two different switches.
There is no standard recipe. FDA reviews document at least two: an outsourcing facility’s 2019–2020 injection with 6 mg/mL of CJC-1295 and 15 mg/mL of ipamorelin, and a pharmacy listing of 6 mg of each per vial. No approved medicine contains either peptide, and no study has tested the mix.
Component 1 is [D-Ala2, Gln8, Ala15, Leu27]-hGRF(1-29)-NH2 (C152H252N44O42, 3367.9 g/mol), a GHRH-receptor agonist lacking the maleimidopropionyl-lysine that lets the DAC version bind albumin. Component 2 is Aib-His-D-2-Nal-D-Phe-Lys-NH2 (C38H49N9O5, 711.9 g/mol), a GHS-R1a agonist.
FDA’s 2024 CJC-1295 briefing records that one outsourcing facility reported compounding, in 2019 and 2020, a multiple-ingredient injection powder containing CJC-1295 6 mg/mL and ipamorelin 15 mg/mL, roughly a 12:1 molar excess of ipamorelin; no outsourcing facility reported CJC-1295 products after 2020. FDA’s ipamorelin briefing cites a pharmacy listing for a “CJC-1295/ipamorelin (lyo) 6/6 mg vial”, about 4.7:1 by moles, and a 2020 M-CERSI report in which a subject-matter expert described a “trending” synergistic combination of ipamorelin acetate with CJC-1295 without DAC.
Salt form (free base or acetate) and identity are not standardised. FDA found at least nine names in use for five CJC-1295-related substances, so the CJC-1295 component of a given product may be either peptide.
Ingredient: CJC-1295 without DAC
This is a 29-building-block copy of the working part of GHRH, the brain signal that tells the pituitary to release growth hormone. Four building blocks are swapped for ones the body breaks down more slowly. It is not sermorelin, the unmodified chain that was once an approved drug, and it lacks the chemical hook that makes CJC-1295 with DAC last for about a week.
On its own it has almost no published record. The FDA’s 2024 review found no pharmacology studies of it, there are no registered human trials, and how long it lasts in the body has never been measured. Everything said about its effects is borrowed from related molecules. If it works like other GHRH copies, it needs a functioning pituitary to have any effect.
The substitutions address known weak points of GRF(1-29): D-Ala2 resists dipeptidyl peptidase-IV cleavage of the Ala2–Asp3 bond, Gln8 replaces deamidation-prone Asn8, Ala15 replaces Gly15, and Leu27 replaces oxidation-prone Met27. It is presumed to act on the GHRH receptor, a Gs-coupled receptor on somatotrophs that raises cAMP and stimulates GH synthesis and release, subject to somatostatin and IGF-1 feedback.
FDA’s December 2024 briefing states that the nominations did not include, and FDA had not identified, pharmacological studies of CJC-1295 free base or acetate, nor nonclinical pharmacokinetic studies. Its safety assessment therefore drew on the DAC literature and on the expected effects of raising endogenous GH. ClinicalTrials.gov lists no study of the non-DAC peptide; the only CJC-1295 registration, NCT00267527, used ConjuChem’s DAC conjugate and was terminated in 2006 after a participant’s death. Potency and half-life relative to sermorelin are unmeasured.
See the CJC-1295 without DAC article for sources and detail.
Ingredient: Ipamorelin
Ipamorelin is a five-building-block chain designed by Novo Nordisk in the 1990s. It acts on the ghrelin receptor, the same switch as the stomach’s “hunger hormone”, which also tells the pituitary to release growth hormone. In pigs it released growth hormone without the rise in stress hormones such as cortisol seen with older compounds.
In healthy men given it through a drip, growth hormone rose to a single short peak and fell back within about six hours. Its main patient trial, in people recovering from bowel surgery, did not show a statistically reliable difference from placebo, and development stopped. There are no controlled human data for injection under the skin, the route for which these products are prepared.
Ipamorelin (NNC 26-0161) is a GHS-R1a agonist; GHS-R1a is a Gq-coupled receptor on somatotrophs and hypothalamic neurons. Raun et al. (1998) reported an EC50 of 1.3 nmol/L for GH release from rat pituitary cells and an ED50 of 2.3 nmol/kg in conscious swine, with no rise in ACTH or cortisol beyond GHRH-like levels even at more than 200 times the GH ED50; GHRP and GHRH antagonist experiments placed its action at the GHRP receptor.
FDA’s 2024 briefing summarises human intravenous pharmacokinetics (Gobburu et al. 1999): terminal half-life about 2 hours and a GH peak at about 0.67 hours returning to very low levels by 6 hours. In the Phase 2 postoperative ileus trial (Beck et al. 2014, NCT00672074; 0.03 mg/kg IV twice daily), median time to first tolerated meal was 25.3 versus 32.6 hours on placebo (P = 0.15); hypokalaemia and hyperglycaemia were more frequent on ipamorelin, and two ipamorelin-treated patients died after anastomotic leak, relationship unclear.
See the ipamorelin article for sources and detail.
Why researchers might study these together
Growth hormone release is controlled by two accelerators and a brake: GHRH, a ghrelin-type signal, and a brake hormone called somatostatin. The two ingredients press different accelerators, so the hypothesis is that combining them adds up to more than either alone.
There is evidence for that idea with related molecules. In a 1990 study of 18 healthy men, small doses of a ghrelin-receptor peptide called GHRP-6 given with natural GHRH released more growth hormone together than the two would separately. A 2009 study in 47 men given GHRP-2 with GHRH also reported synergy, and in mice lacking their own GHRH, the ghrelin-type drug alone did not release growth hormone.
This exact pair has never been tested together in published human or animal research, so any combined effect, safe dose or risk is a hypothesis.
The GHRH receptor (Gs, cAMP/PKA) and GHS-R1a (Gq, phospholipase C, intracellular calcium) converge on somatotroph GH exocytosis, and GHS-R1a agonists also act at the hypothalamus. Bowers et al. (JCEM 1990; 18 men) gave GHRP-6 at 0.1, 0.3 and 1.0 µg/kg IV: mean peak GH was 7.6, 16.5 and 68.7 µg/L versus 1.2 on placebo, and the submaximal doses combined with GHRH(1-44) 1 µg/kg released GH synergistically, which the authors read as evidence that the two act independently. Veldhuis and Bowers (2009; 47 men aged 18–74, simultaneous GHRH and GHRP-2 infusion under a sex-steroid clamp) found synergy correlated negatively with age and abdominal visceral fat and positively with IGF-I (all P under 0.001). In GHRH-knockout mice, five weeks of the GHRH analogue JI-38 plus GHRP-2 produced greater body length and weight than JI-38 alone, while GHRP-2 alone gave no acute GH response (Fintini 2005).
Extrapolation is limited: ipamorelin is more selective than GHRP-6 or GHRP-2, Modified GRF(1-29) is neither GHRH(1-44) nor JI-38, and the non-DAC peptide has no pharmacokinetic data. ClinicalTrials.gov lists no trial combining the two, and a PubMed search for both names returned only reviews and doping-control methods.
Regulatory picture
Approval: neither ingredient is in any FDA-approved medicine, and the combination has never been submitted for approval.
Compounding: in September 2023 the FDA put both peptides in Category 2, its list of substances that raise significant safety concerns. The nominators withdrew in 2024, and the FDA’s advisory committee then voted against adding either to the list of ingredients pharmacies may compound with: 12 to 0 with one abstention against ipamorelin, and 13 to 0 and 12 to 1 against the two forms of CJC-1295 without DAC. No final rule has followed. Ipamorelin acetate remains in Category 2 for large outsourcing facilities.
Enforcement: a 2022 FDA inspection recorded a pharmacy making this combination with non-pharmaceutical-grade CJC-1295. Sport: WADA prohibits both ingredients at all times.
Approval: none. Neither CJC-1295 without DAC nor ipamorelin is a component of an FDA-approved drug or has a USP monograph, so a compounded combination cannot meet section 503A(b)(1)(A)(i) unless both substances are added to the 503A bulks list in 21 CFR 216.23.
Compounding: “CJC-1295” (form unspecified) and ipamorelin acetate entered 503A Category 2 on 2023-09-29 and were removed on 2024-09-27 after the nominations were withdrawn. FDA then evaluated CJC-1295 free base and acetate, and ipamorelin free base and acetate, on its own initiative and proposed that none be listed, citing identity and impurity concerns, immunogenicity, the absence of pharmacology and efficacy data for the non-DAC peptide, and the failed intravenous ileus trial and adverse events for ipamorelin. The committee votes were 0–12–1 for each ipamorelin form (2024-10-29) and 0–13 and 1–12 for CJC-1295 free base and acetate (2024-12-04). FDA’s safety-risk page, updated 2026-04-22, lists ipamorelin acetate in 503B Category 2. Neither substance was on the agenda of the July 2026 committee meeting. The compounding field follows the stricter component and is recorded as unknown, as for both ingredients.
Sport: WADA 2026 S2.2.4 lists CJC-1295 and ipamorelin.
