CJC-1295
GHRH analogue · Also sold as Mod GRF 1-29 or CJC-1295 no-DAC, which is a related but shorter-acting compound
- UK status
- Unlicensed medicine
- Availability
- Research use only
- Evidence base
- No human trials supporting marketed claims
- Controlled drug
- No, but WADA prohibited
Sequence
A modified fragment of growth hormone releasing hormone. Verify the exact notation against the literature before publishing one.
The short version
What it does
Sold to raise your own growth hormone, for muscle, fat loss, recovery and sleep.
How it does it
There is a gland in your head that releases growth hormone when told to. This copies the instruction, and it is built to keep giving it for days rather than minutes.
The catch
It does raise growth hormone. That much is real. What nobody has tested is whether raising it actually makes a healthy person better off, and normally your body releases it in bursts overnight, not constantly.
Everything below goes into the detail, with sources.
CJC-1295 is the most commonly sold growth hormone peptide in the UK grey market. It does not contain growth hormone. It is designed to make your pituitary release more of your own, which is a legally and pharmacologically different proposition, and not a safer one.
At a glance
- Compound type
- Modified GHRH fragment
- Drug class
- GHRH analogue. No approved therapeutic class.
- Two versions sold
- With DAC, acting over days. Without DAC (Mod GRF 1-29), minutes to hours.
- Usually sold with
- Ipamorelin
- Marketed for
- Muscle, fat loss, recovery, sleep, anti-ageing
- Human evidence
- Early pharmacology showing raised GH and IGF-1. No outcome trials.
- UK status
- Unlicensed medicine. Supply for human use prohibited.
- In sport
- Named under WADA S2.2.4. Prohibited at all times. Detection methods exist.
01What it is
Growth hormone releasing hormone, GHRH, is the signal from the hypothalamus that tells the pituitary gland to release growth hormone. CJC-1295 is a modified analogue of that signal, engineered to resist breakdown so it lasts far longer than the natural hormone.
Two versions circulate and they are meaningfully different. The version with DAC, a drug affinity complex, binds to albumin in the blood and acts over days. The version without DAC, often sold as Mod GRF 1-29, clears within minutes to hours. Sellers frequently use the name CJC-1295 for both.
Two products under one name, with completely different durations of action, is a labelling problem before it is anything else. If a seller is not clear about which one they are shipping, that tells you something about the rest of their operation.
02How it came about
CJC-1295 was developed by a biotechnology company in the early 2000s as a long-acting GHRH analogue, using a drug affinity complex to bind albumin and extend its action from minutes to days. Early human pharmacology studies were published showing it raised growth hormone and IGF-1.
Clinical development did not continue to approval. The compound persists entirely in the grey market, where it has become the most commonly sold growth hormone peptide in the UK.
03UK legal and licensing status
CJC-1295 has no MHRA authorisation for any indication in any patient group. Supplying it for human use without a marketing authorisation is unlawful under the Human Medicines Regulations 2012. It is not itself scheduled under the Misuse of Drugs Act, though growth hormone, the thing it is intended to raise, is a Class C controlled drug.
It is sold as a research chemical labelled not for human consumption. That label describes the seller's legal position. It does not survive contact with the law if the product is plainly being marketed to consumers with dosing tables and physique claims alongside it.
Athletes: WADA lists GHRH and its analogues, naming CJC-1293, CJC-1295, sermorelin and tesamorelin, under S2.2.4. Prohibited at all times, in and out of competition. Detection methods for CJC-1295 have been developed and are in use by accredited laboratories. There are no therapeutic use exemptions for unapproved substances, and strict liability applies.
04How it works
It binds GHRH receptors in the pituitary, increasing growth hormone secretion. The sustained-release version raises growth hormone over days rather than in the pulses the body normally produces.
That difference from normal physiology is the part most marketing skips. Growth hormone is released in pulses, largely at night, and the clinical significance of holding it elevated continuously has not been established in humans. It is a reason for caution, not reassurance.
Downstream, growth hormone raises IGF-1, insulin-like growth factor 1, which mediates much of its effect on tissue. IGF-1 is the blood marker people use to judge whether something is happening.
05What it is not
Claims that attach themselves to this compound and do not hold up.
- Not growth hormone. It signals your pituitary to release more of yours, which is a different legal category and not inherently safer.
- Not one product. With-DAC and without-DAC versions behave completely differently and are both sold as CJC-1295.
- Not validated for any outcome. Raising a blood marker is not the same as producing a benefit. The outcome trials do not exist.
- Not physiological. Growth hormone is normally released in pulses, mostly at night. Sustained elevation is a departure from that, and the consequences are uncharacterised.
06What the evidence shows
There is early human pharmacology showing that CJC-1295 raises growth hormone and IGF-1 concentrations. So the mechanism is real. What does not exist is controlled human trial evidence that this produces the outcomes it is sold for: muscle gain, fat loss, better recovery, better sleep, slower ageing.
A drug can reliably move a blood marker and still not deliver a benefit. Demonstrating that growth hormone goes up is the easy part. Demonstrating that the person is better off, and not worse off years later, requires trials that have not been run.
The FDA has classified CJC-1295 as a substance with safety concerns for compounding purposes, citing safety and regulatory risk.
Long-term human safety is unknown. Sustained elevation of growth hormone and IGF-1 raises questions about glucose metabolism and tissue growth that the existing evidence cannot answer either way, and no approved label, standardised preparation or purity standard exists.
07Reported harms
No authoritative side effect profile exists, because that comes from regulated trials and an SPC. Effects reported with growth hormone excess more generally include fluid retention, joint pain, carpal tunnel symptoms and impaired glucose tolerance, and it is reasonable to expect a compound designed to raise growth hormone to carry related risks.
The documented risks are those of unregulated supply: unverified identity, inaccurate concentration, non-sterile preparation, endotoxin contamination, and no recall route. For a blend sold with ipamorelin, every one of those questions doubles.
08Interactions and cautions
No interaction data from a regulated programme. Anything that raises growth hormone would be expected to affect glucose handling, which matters for anyone on diabetes medication, and nobody can quantify it for this compound.
09Stopping
Growth hormone and IGF-1 return to baseline. Any effects attributable to fluid retention resolve. Beyond that, undocumented.
10Monitoring
Clinics selling it often measure IGF-1, which sounds reassuring and mostly is not: it confirms the compound is doing something, not that the something is good for you. There is no approved monitoring framework, and no safe target range for a healthy adult.
11Questions worth asking
Take these to a doctor or pharmacist. A good clinician will not mind being asked, and the answers are specific to you in a way nothing on this page can be.
- Have I been tested for actual growth hormone deficiency, through an NHS endocrinology pathway?
- What is the evidence that raising IGF-1 in someone with normal levels improves anything?
- What are the long-term glucose and tissue growth risks, and can anyone quantify them?
- Am I getting the DAC or non-DAC version, and does the seller even specify?
12Common questions
Is CJC-1295 legal in the UK?
It has no MHRA authorisation for any indication. Supplying it for human use without one is unlawful under the Human Medicines Regulations 2012. It is not itself a controlled drug, though growth hormone, the thing it raises, is Class C.
What is the difference between CJC-1295 with and without DAC?
With DAC it binds albumin and acts over several days, holding growth hormone elevated. Without DAC, sold as Mod GRF 1-29, it clears within minutes to hours and produces a short pulse closer to natural release. Sellers frequently use one name for both.
Does it work?
It raises growth hormone and IGF-1. That much is established. Whether that translates into the muscle, fat loss, recovery or anti-ageing outcomes it is sold for has not been tested in controlled human trials.
Will it show up on a drug test?
In a WADA-tested sport, yes. Analytical methods for CJC-1295 have been published and are in use by accredited laboratories. It is prohibited at all times and there are no therapeutic use exemptions for unapproved substances.
13Sources
Links go to the authoritative source. Where a document sits behind a paywall or moves around, the full citation is given so you can find it yourself.
- Unlicensed medicines guidanceMHRA
- Prohibited List, S2.2.4 growth hormone releasing factorsWADA
- Regulatory status of compounded peptidesFDA bulk drug substances review
- CJC-1295 human pharmacology studiesPubMed
- Yellow Card reportingMHRA
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