What it is
CJC-1295 with DAC is a short chain of amino acids (a peptide) made in a lab. It copies the first 29 building blocks of growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH). GHRH is a signal from the brain. It tells the pituitary gland (a small gland under the brain) to release growth hormone.
Four of those building blocks were swapped. This makes the chain harder for the body to break down. A small chemical hook was also added to one end. It is called a Drug Affinity Complex, or DAC. After a shot, the hook grabs onto albumin. Albumin is the most common protein in blood. It carries the peptide around for days instead of minutes.
In the published human studies, one shot raised growth hormone for one to two weeks. It also raised IGF-1 for that long. IGF-1 is a hormone made mostly in the liver when growth hormone goes up. CJC-1295 with DAC is not an approved medicine anywhere. A different peptide without the hook is often sold under the same name.
CJC-1295 (DAC:GRF) is [D-Ala2, Gln8, Ala15, Leu27]-hGRF(1-29) extended at the C-terminus by a lysine whose ε-amine carries a 3-maleimidopropionamide (MPA) group, with a C-terminal amide (C165H269N47O46, 3647.2 g/mol). 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 (for Gly15) is associated with greater helicity, and Leu27 replaces an oxidation-prone methionine. The maleimide reacts with the free thiol of Cys34 on serum albumin, forming a covalent conjugate in vivo.
It acts as an agonist at the GHRH receptor, a Gs-coupled receptor on anterior-pituitary somatotrophs, raising GH synthesis and release; its effect therefore depends on a functioning pituitary. Estimated half-life in healthy adults was 5.8–8.1 days. FDA’s 2024 review treats the DAC and non-DAC peptides as two distinct active moieties and documents inconsistent naming, so material labelled “CJC-1295” may be either.
Who made it and when
The drug came from ConjuChem, a biotech company in Montreal, Canada. The company worked on ways to make short-lived peptide drugs last longer. It did this by joining them to albumin. Its scientists described CJC-1295 in 2005. Human studies followed in 2005 and 2006. The goal was to help people whose pituitary gland works but makes too little growth hormone.
In 2006 a mid-stage trial was stopped. It tested the drug in people with HIV and extra belly fat. One person in the trial died of a heart attack shortly after a weekly dose. Reports cited by the FDA say his doctor thought the most likely cause was heart disease that had not been found before. Even so, the trial was ended. Its results were never published. No later trial has been registered.
Jetté et al. (Endocrinology 2005) synthesised three maleimido derivatives of hGRF(1-29), conjugated them to human serum albumin ex vivo, and selected CJC-1295 because it produced a four-fold larger GH AUC over two hours than hGRF(1-29) in rats and remained in plasma beyond 72 hours, bound to albumin. Alba et al. (2006) reported that once-daily dosing normalised growth in GHRH-knockout mice, while dosing every 48 or 72 hours did not fully do so.
ConjuChem’s Phase 2 study NCT00267527 (12 weeks, HIV-associated visceral obesity) started in December 2005. FDA’s 2024 briefing, citing contemporaneous reports, records 192 randomised participants, an acute myocardial infarction diagnosed about two hours after an 11th weekly dose and death about an hour later, the attending physician’s attribution to plaque rupture in pre-existing coronary artery disease, and termination of the study; it states ConjuChem withdrew CJC-1295 from clinical trials in 2006. No compound patent could be verified for this article, so none is listed.
What the data say
All published human data come from about 60 healthy volunteers. Most were men. Each got one to four shots. The results appeared in three studies published in 2006 and 2009.
One dose raised growth hormone two- to tenfold for six days or more. It raised IGF-1 by one and a half to three times for more than a week. Growth hormone normally rises and falls in pulses. That pattern stayed the same. But the low points between pulses rose sharply.
Side effects were common. Most people had reactions where the shot went in. Other side effects were headache, flushing and warmth, short drops in blood pressure, diarrhoea and a faster heart rate. The only trial in patients was stopped after a death. It never reported results. Nothing is known about long-term use. No study has checked whether it helps with any disease.
Teichman et al. (JCEM 2006) ran two randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled ascending-dose studies in healthy adults aged 21–61. After single subcutaneous doses of 30–250 µg/kg, mean GH rose 2- to 10-fold for 6 days or more and mean IGF-1 1.5- to 3-fold for 9–11 days; IGF-1 exceeded the normal range only at 250 µg/kg. With two or three weekly or biweekly doses, IGF-1 stayed above baseline for up to 28 days. In study 1, adverse events occurred in 33 of 35 active and 2 of 7 placebo recipients: injection-site reactions about 70%, headache 63% versus 14%, diarrhoea, and vasodilatory reactions about 30%. No serious adverse reactions were reported.
Ionescu and Frohman (JCEM 2006) gave 60 or 90 µg/kg once to 12 healthy men. Pulse frequency and amplitude were unchanged; trough GH rose 7.5-fold (P under 0.0001), mean GH 46% and IGF-1 45%, with a dose-dependent heart-rate increase. Across these two papers and Sackmann-Sala et al. (2009), FDA’s 2024 review counted 63 exposed subjects, 87% men and 73% given a single dose. No efficacy data in any patient population exist.
Regulatory picture
Approval: the FDA has not approved any medicine with CJC-1295. As far as could be found, no other regulator has either.
Compounding (pharmacies mixing their own versions): in September 2023 the FDA put “CJC-1295” in Category 2. This is its list of suggested ingredients that raise serious safety concerns. In 2024 the people who suggested it took back their request. That removed it from the list. The FDA then reviewed the substance on its own.
In December 2024 an FDA expert panel voted 13 to 0 against it. They voted against adding any form of the DAC peptide to the list of ingredients pharmacies may use. It is not on that list. The FDA has said drugs made from it do not qualify for the special rules that let pharmacies compound. It was not among the six peptides in the US health department’s October 2026 draft policy easing enforcement.
Sport: the World Anti-Doping Agency bans CJC-1295 at all times.
Approval: none. No IND-stage program could be identified after ConjuChem’s 2006 withdrawal.
Compounding: FDA’s 503A category list dated 2023-09-29 added “CJC-1295” to Category 2; the list dated 2024-09-27 removed it because the nominations were withdrawn. FDA evaluated five bulk substances on its own initiative (CJC-1295 free base and acetate; DAC free base, acetate and trifluoroacetate) for growth hormone deficiency, as a 2,000 mcg/mL subcutaneous injection, and proposed that none be listed, citing characterisation and naming problems, immunogenicity risk, adverse events including increased heart rate and systemic vasodilatory reactions, and no efficacy data. On 2024-12-04 the committee voted 0–13 for each DAC form. FDA’s safety-risk page, updated 2026-04-22, lists CJC-1295 among substances withdrawn from Category 2. With no USP monograph, no approved-drug component and no 503A bulks listing, compounded products fail section 503A(b)(1)(A)(i), as a 2020 FDA warning letter stated; no final rule on the committee’s advice had been published, so this article records the compounding field as unknown. CJC-1295 is not among the six peptides covered by the HHS draft enforcement-discretion policy of 2026-10-30.
Sport: WADA 2026 Prohibited List, S2.2.4 (GHRH and its analogues), names CJC-1295.
