What is inside
“Super Human” is a sales name, not a scientific one. Sellers use it for a vial holding five lab-made peptides (short chains of amino acids): BPC-157, TB-500, CJC-1295, ipamorelin and GHK-Cu. Two of them, BPC-157 and TB-500, are studied for healing, mostly in animals. Two, CJC-1295 and ipamorelin, make the pituitary gland release growth hormone. GHK-Cu is a copper-carrying peptide studied for skin. None of the five is an approved medicine anywhere.
There is no official recipe. Each seller decides how much of each peptide goes in and in what ratio. Nothing is standardised. Sellers usually do not even say which CJC-1295 they mean. There are two: one with a “DAC” hook that makes it last for days, and one without. They are different molecules with different effects. Each ingredient has its own page on this site. The next sections sum them up.
The product is a physical mixture of five unrelated synthetic peptides: BPC-157 (a linear pentadecapeptide, 1419.5 g/mol), TB-500 (Ac-LKKTETQ, the N-acetylated 17-23 fragment of thymosin beta-4, 889.0 g/mol), CJC-1295, ipamorelin (Aib-His-D-2-Nal-D-Phe-Lys-NH2, 711.9 g/mol) and GHK-Cu (the 1:1 copper(II) complex of glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine, about 401.9 g/mol). “CJC-1295” is ambiguous: the tetrasubstituted GRF(1-29) amide without the drug affinity complex (3367.9 g/mol) and the albumin-binding DAC conjugate (3647.2 g/mol) differ in half-life by orders of magnitude, and sellers rarely specify which is present; FDA’s 2024 review likewise noted that most websites do not state the form. TB-500 is also used loosely, and the 2026 rat study of the pair calls it synthetic thymosin beta-4.
A five-peptide mixture multiplies formulation unknowns. Whether copper from GHK-Cu redistributes to the other peptides or promotes oxidation, and how the five behave together in powder or solution, has not been reported. No reference standard exists. Human pharmacokinetics are unpublished for all five by the subcutaneous route, and TB-500 has no human exposure data of any kind.
Who made it and when
No one invented this blend. It has no inventor, developer or date. It is a seller’s bundle of peptides that each have a separate history. BPC-157 was described at the University of Zagreb in the 1990s. TB-500 is a piece of thymosin beta-4, a natural protein first characterised at George Washington University. CJC-1295 was made by ConjuChem, a Montreal company, and tested in healthy adults in studies published in 2006. Ipamorelin came from Novo Nordisk in Denmark in the late 1990s. GHK-Cu was identified by Loren Pickart in 1973.
None of these programmes led to an approved drug. ConjuChem’s CJC-1295 trial in patients was stopped in 2006. Ipamorelin’s trials after bowel surgery missed their goals. The others never reached controlled human trials. The five-peptide “stack” appeared on seller websites, not in any research plan.
No originator, patent or investigational programme exists for the combination. Component histories are set out on their pages. In brief: BPC-157 derives from the Zagreb pharmacology group’s work on a gastric juice peptide (Seiwerth et al. 2018 reviews their models); thymosin beta-4 was characterised as the major actin-sequestering protein of eukaryotic cells (Goldstein et al. 2005); CJC-1295 was developed by ConjuChem as an albumin-conjugating GHRH analogue and studied in two randomised, placebo-controlled ascending-dose trials in healthy adults aged 21-61 (Teichman et al. 2006); ipamorelin was a Novo Nordisk ghrelin-receptor agonist whose human pharmacokinetics were characterised in 1999 (Gobburu et al.); GHK was identified by Pickart in the 1970s and its copper complex has been used in cosmetics for decades (Pickart and Margolina 2018).
Regulatory chronology: all five were nominated for the 503A bulks list and placed in Category 2 on 2023-09-29; all were later withdrawn by the nominators and appear on FDA’s safety-risk page updated 2026-04-22 as withdrawn substances. FDA nonetheless brought ipamorelin (2024-10-29), the CJC-1295 family (2024-12-04) and BPC-157 with TB-500 (2026-07-23) to its advisory committee, and has announced a GHK-Cu review before the end of February 2027.
What the data say
No study has tested the five peptides together. No study has tested any three of them together. The only combination study covers two: a 2026 rat experiment of BPC-157 with TB-500 after Achilles tendon surgery. Thirty-two rats got one peptide, both, or nothing for four weeks. TB-500 alone improved tendon strength. The pair did no better than either peptide alone.
The single-ingredient human data are thin. CJC-1295 with DAC was given to healthy adults in two small trials. One shot raised growth hormone 2- to 10-fold for 6 days or more and IGF-1 for 9 to 11 days. Ipamorelin was given into a vein to 40 healthy men and caused one short burst of growth hormone that peaked at 40 minutes. BPC-157’s human evidence is limited to a two-week conference summary and small uncontrolled reports. TB-500 has never been given to people in a published study. GHK-Cu’s human trials used creams and gels, not shots.
Combination evidence: Biçer et al. (2026) randomised 32 male Sprague-Dawley rats after Achilles tendon transection and repair to vehicle, BPC-157 10 µg/kg/day, TB-500 60 µg/kg/day, or both, intraperitoneally for four weeks. TB-500 significantly increased maximum load to failure and lowered Bonar and Movin scores; the combination lowered Movin scores versus control but conferred no additional benefit over either agent alone. No study of any other pair, or of three or more of the five, was identified.
Single-ingredient human data: Teichman et al. (2006) reported dose-dependent 2- to 10-fold increases in mean plasma GH for 6 days or more and 1.5- to 3-fold increases in IGF-I for 9-11 days after a single subcutaneous CJC-1295 DAC injection, with an estimated half-life of 5.8-8.1 days and IGF-I remaining above baseline for up to 28 days after multiple doses. Gobburu et al. (1999) infused ipamorelin at 4.21-140.45 nmol/kg over 15 minutes in healthy men (eight per dose level) and found dose-proportional pharmacokinetics, a 2-hour terminal half-life and a single GH release episode peaking at 0.67 hours. FDA’s 2026 briefing identified for BPC-157 only a 2005 meeting abstract of a two-week placebo-controlled enema study in 53 ulcerative colitis patients, no human pharmacokinetic data, and FAERS reports including injection-site reaction, shortness of breath and the hyperpigmentation case described above. No pharmacological study of CJC-1295 without DAC, no human study of the TB-500 fragment, and no controlled study of injected GHK-Cu were found.
Ingredient: BPC-157
BPC-157 is a chain of 15 amino acids. Researchers in Zagreb, Croatia, described it as a piece of a protein in stomach juice. Almost everything known about it comes from rats and mice, mostly from the same group. In those animals it was reported to speed the healing of tendons, muscles and ligaments and to protect the stomach lining.
No controlled human trial has been published in full. The FDA reviewed it in 2026 and found only a short 2005 conference summary of a two-week enema study in 53 people with ulcerative colitis, which it judged inadequate. The FDA also found no data on how the body handles BPC-157 after a shot. Its side-effect database holds a few reports, including one of skin and gum darkening from a product that also held TB-500. The FDA’s advisory committee reviewed BPC-157 for ulcerative colitis in July 2026.
No receptor has been identified. Seiwerth et al. (2018), from the Zagreb group, review BPC-157 as consistently effective across their rodent models of oesophageal, gastric, duodenal and lower gastrointestinal injury and of tendon, ligament, muscle and bone healing, and attribute this to an angiogenic effect distinct from EGF, FGF and VEGF. Independent replication is limited.
FDA’s July 2026 briefing identified a single randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, reported only as a meeting abstract (Ruenzi et al. 2005), in which 53 subjects with mild to moderate ulcerative colitis received an 80 mg BPC-157 enema or placebo once daily for two weeks; FDA judged the data inadequate. The briefing states there is no information to assess human pharmacokinetics, that BPC-157 does not appear to be absorbed systemically as an enema, that outsourcing facilities reported no BPC-157 products from January 2017 to June 2025, and that FAERS contained reports of injection-site reaction, shortness of breath and diffuse hyperpigmentation with gingival darkening. FDA also stated it could not rule out immunogenicity from impurities and aggregates in an injectable form. BPC-157 was placed in Category 2 in 2023, withdrawn by its nominators, and reviewed by the advisory committee on 2026-07-23 for ulcerative colitis.
Ingredient: TB-500
TB-500 is a lab-made copy of seven amino acids taken from thymosin beta-4. That natural protein is found in almost every cell, where it holds on to actin, a building block of the cell’s inner frame. In animals, thymosin beta-4 has been linked to skin and eye wound healing.
The key point is that TB-500 is not thymosin beta-4. The human trials often quoted for TB-500 used the whole 43-amino-acid protein, mostly as eye drops. No human study of the seven-amino-acid piece was found. The FDA said in 2023 that it had found no human exposure data for the fragment. The 2026 rat study that tested it with BPC-157 called it “synthetic thymosin beta-4”, so even in research the name is used loosely. The FDA’s advisory committee reviewed TB-500 for wound healing in July 2026.
TB-500 (Ac-LKKTETQ) reproduces the LKKTET actin-binding motif of thymosin beta-4. Goldstein et al. (2005) review full-length thymosin beta-4 as the major actin-sequestering molecule in eukaryotic cells, with a key role in dermal and corneal wound healing in preclinical models and potential applications in repair after hypoxic injury such as myocardial infarction and stroke. Whether the isolated fragment reproduces those effects is unsettled, as other activities of the parent protein reside elsewhere in the molecule.
For the fragment itself, no human study was identified. FDA’s safety-risk page lists TB-500 (thymosin beta-4 fragment) among withdrawn Category 2 substances, with the identified risk of immunogenicity for certain routes of administration. The only controlled animal test of the fragment in combination is Biçer et al. (2026), where 60 µg/kg/day intraperitoneally in rats improved tendon load to failure and histology, and where the authors describe TB-500 as synthetic thymosin beta-4 without specifying the fragment, so the identity of “TB-500” in any given product cannot be assumed. The advisory committee reviewed TB-500 free base and acetate for wound healing on 2026-07-23.
Ingredient: CJC-1295 (form usually unspecified)
CJC-1295 copies the front part of GHRH, the brain signal that tells the pituitary gland to release growth hormone. Four of its 29 building blocks are swapped so it breaks down more slowly. It comes in two versions. CJC-1295 with DAC has a chemical hook that locks onto albumin, a blood protein, so one shot works for days. CJC-1295 without DAC, also called Mod GRF 1-29, has no hook. Sellers of this blend usually do not say which one is inside. The FDA found the same problem on seller websites.
Only the DAC version has human data. In two small trials in healthy adults, one shot raised growth hormone 2- to 10-fold for 6 days or more. The authors reported no serious side effects. The FDA’s safety page, though, cites serious events including a faster heart rate and body-wide blood-vessel widening. The no-DAC version has never been studied in people. In December 2024 an FDA advisory committee voted 0 to 13 against allowing the DAC forms in compounding and 0 to 13 and 1 to 12 against the non-DAC forms.
Both forms share the sequence [D-Ala2, Gln8, Ala15, Leu27]-hGRF(1-29)-NH2; the DAC form adds a C-terminal Lys(maleimidopropionyl) that forms a covalent bond with albumin Cys34 after injection. Teichman et al. (2006) ran two randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind ascending-dose trials of the DAC form in healthy subjects aged 21-61: a single subcutaneous injection produced 2- to 10-fold increases in mean plasma GH for 6 days or more and 1.5- to 3-fold increases in IGF-I for 9-11 days, with an estimated half-life of 5.8-8.1 days; after multiple doses IGF-I stayed above baseline for up to 28 days; no serious adverse reactions were reported and tolerability was described as relatively good, particularly at 30 or 60 mcg/kg.
FDA’s safety-risk page, listing CJC-1295 among withdrawn Category 2 substances, records serious adverse events including increased heart rate and systemic vasodilatory reaction. No pharmacological or pharmacokinetic study of the non-DAC peptide was identified. On 2024-12-04 the Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee voted 0 yes, 13 no on CJC-1295 free base, 1 yes, 12 no on CJC-1295 acetate, and 0 yes, 13 no on each of CJC-1295 DAC free base, acetate and trifluoroacetate; FDA rulemaking has not followed. Because product labels rarely state the form, the pharmacology of the “CJC-1295” in any given vial, including whether GH exposure is continuous or pulsatile, is unknown.
Ingredient: Ipamorelin
Ipamorelin is a five-amino-acid peptide from Novo Nordisk. It fits the same receptor as ghrelin, the “hunger hormone”, on the pituitary gland, and triggers a burst of growth hormone. Its selling point in animal studies was that, unlike older compounds, it did not also raise stress hormones.
In people it has only been given into a vein. In a 1999 study, healthy men got one 15-minute infusion. Growth hormone rose once, peaked at 40 minutes, and faded. Half the drug was cleared in about 2 hours. Later trials tested it after bowel surgery and did not meet their goals; the FDA’s safety page cites serious events including death in that setting as one reason it keeps ipamorelin in its 503B Category 2. In October 2024 an FDA advisory committee voted 0 to 12, with one abstention, against allowing it in pharmacy compounding. No human study has tested shots under the skin.
Ipamorelin (Aib-His-D-2-Nal-D-Phe-Lys-NH2) is a GHS-R1a agonist. Gobburu et al. (1999) infused 4.21, 14.02, 42.13, 84.27 or 140.45 nmol/kg over 15 minutes in healthy men, eight per dose level, and found dose-proportional pharmacokinetics (terminal half-life 2 h, clearance 0.078 L/h/kg, steady-state volume 0.22 L/kg) and a single episode of GH release peaking at 0.67 h with an SC50 of 214 nmol/L. GH exposure from a single dose is therefore brief, in contrast to the multi-day elevation from CJC-1295 DAC.
FDA’s safety-risk page lists ipamorelin acetate in 503B Category 2 (placed 2023-09-29), citing immunogenicity and serious adverse events, and records that the 503A nomination was withdrawn. On 2024-10-29 the Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee agreed to vote on ipamorelin free base and acetate as a group and then voted 0 yes, 12 no, 1 abstain on each, against inclusion on the 503A bulks list; members who voted no cited the lack of evidence that withdrawal of a nomination means a substance is safe and effective. No pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic or safety data exist for the subcutaneous route.
Ingredient: GHK-Cu
GHK-Cu is a three-amino-acid peptide carrying a copper atom. It occurs naturally in human blood, and levels fall with age. Loren Pickart identified it in 1973. It has been used in skin creams and hair products for decades, where it is regulated as a cosmetic. In cell studies it increases collagen and elastin made by skin cells, and in animals it helped wounds close.
Human evidence comes from small studies of creams and gels. No controlled human study of GHK-Cu shots exists, and no one has published how much copper a shot puts into the body. The FDA placed injectable GHK-Cu in Category 2 in 2023. Its nominators withdrew it. In May 2026 the FDA put GHK-Cu for non-injectable uses back under evaluation and said it plans to ask its advisory committee about GHK-Cu before the end of February 2027.
GHK (glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine) binds copper(II) with high affinity. Pickart and Margolina (2018) review its actions as stimulating blood vessel and nerve outgrowth, increasing collagen, elastin and glycosaminoglycan synthesis, supporting dermal fibroblast function, and modulating gene expression across multiple pathways; the review’s authors are the peptide’s discoverer and a colleague, and most cited data are in vitro or animal. Human evidence is limited to small topical studies.
Regulatory status is split by route. FDA’s safety-risk page lists GHK-Cu (injectable routes) among withdrawn Category 2 substances, with the identified risk of immunogenicity from aggregation and peptide-related impurities. FDA’s categories list updated 2026-05-14 records that GHK-Cu was removed from Category 1 on 2026-04-22 when its nominations were withdrawn, that on 2026-05-05 a nominator clarified it intended to withdraw only the injectable nomination, and that GHK-Cu (except for injectable routes) has been added back to Category 1, with an advisory committee consultation intended before the end of February 2027. Injectable use, the route relevant to this blend, has no human pharmacokinetic data and no copper-load data.
Why researchers might study these together
The idea behind the name is “everything at once”: two healing peptides, two growth hormone releasers and a skin peptide. BPC-157 has been linked in animal studies to new blood vessels. Thymosin beta-4 has been linked to cells moving into wounds. CJC-1295 and ipamorelin act on two different receptors, so together they might give a bigger growth hormone burst. GHK-Cu has been linked to collagen. On paper, the parts add up. In practice, this is a hypothesis no one has tested.
The one controlled test of any part of it points the other way. In the 2026 rat tendon study, BPC-157 plus TB-500 did no better than either peptide alone. Nothing has tested the growth hormone pair with the healing pair, or GHK-Cu with any of the others. A five-peptide blend also has a practical problem: if something goes wrong, no one can tell which peptide caused it. The FDA said exactly this about a two-peptide product in 2026.
The rationale stacks three separate hypotheses: complementary tissue-repair mechanisms (VEGFR2-linked angiogenesis for BPC-157; actin-linked cell migration for thymosin beta-4; fibroblast collagen synthesis for GHK-Cu) and synergistic GH release from combined GHRH-receptor (CJC-1295) and ghrelin-receptor (ipamorelin) agonism. Each derives from single-agent literature, and the GH-secretagogue pairing is itself untested with these exact molecules, since the non-DAC peptide has no pharmacological data and the DAC form’s multi-day GH elevation would change the pulsatile logic of pairing with a short-acting secretagogue.
The only controlled combination data are Biçer et al. (2026): intraperitoneal BPC-157 plus TB-500 in rats after Achilles tendon repair did not outperform either peptide alone, which the authors attribute to convergence on shared downstream pathways. No preclinical or clinical study of any GH secretagogue combined with BPC-157, TB-500 or GHK-Cu, or of GHK-Cu with any of the other four, was identified. Whether copper from GHK-Cu affects the stability of the other peptides in one solution is unreported. FDA’s 2026 briefing illustrates the attribution problem: in FAERS case 26053573 it judged a two-peptide product the likely cause of reproducible hyperpigmentation but could not assess the role of BPC-157 alone.
Regulatory picture
Approval: none of the five peptides is an approved drug anywhere, and no regulator has reviewed the combination. FDA decisions cover each peptide on its own.
Compounding (pharmacies mixing their own drugs): in September 2023 the FDA put all five in Category 2, the group it said carries significant safety risks. By April 2026 all five were listed as withdrawn from that group by the people who had nominated them; ipamorelin stays in Category 2 for the larger “outsourcing” facilities. The FDA kept reviewing them anyway. Its advisory committee voted against ipamorelin (0 to 12) in October 2024 and against every form of CJC-1295 (0 to 13 or 1 to 12) in December 2024. It reviewed BPC-157 and TB-500 in July 2026; their pages record the votes. It plans to review GHK-Cu by February 2027. The FDA has not made a final rule on any of them. The blend has no status of its own.
Sport: the FDA pages do not cover sport; see the ingredient pages for anti-doping status.
Approval: none. No IND-stage programme for the combination or for any component could be verified.
Compounding: under section 503A(b)(1)(A)(i) of the FD&C Act, each bulk drug substance must independently comply with a USP or NF monograph, be a component of an approved drug, or appear on the 503A bulks list (21 CFR 216.23). None of the five meets any criterion. All were placed in Category 2 of the interim policy on 2023-09-29 and are listed as withdrawn by their nominators on FDA’s safety-risk page updated 2026-04-22, which retains the identified risks: immunogenicity for certain routes (BPC-157, TB-500, GHK-Cu injectable, Selank-type peptide impurities), and for CJC-1295 serious adverse events including increased heart rate and systemic vasodilatory reaction. Ipamorelin acetate remains in 503B Category 2. FDA’s advisory committee voted 0-12-1 against ipamorelin free base and acetate (2024-10-29), 0-13 against CJC-1295 free base and each DAC form and 1-12 against CJC-1295 acetate (2024-12-04), and reviewed BPC-157 and TB-500 as separate substances on 2026-07-23; FDA’s categories list of 2026-05-14 returns non-injectable GHK-Cu to Category 1 and announces a committee consultation before the end of February 2027. No final rule has issued for any of the five. A blend has no status of its own; this article records compounding as unknown, the status the components share.
Enforcement: FDA’s 2026 BPC-157 briefing records that outsourcing facilities reported no BPC-157 products between January 2017 and June 2025, so the marketed five-peptide products sit outside the reported compounding channel; FDA’s FAERS summary of a research-labelled two-peptide product is described above.
