Sermorelin
GHRH analogue · Formerly Geref, discontinued. No current UK brand
- UK status
- Unlicensed in the UK
- Availability
- Compounded in the US
- Evidence base
- Human RCT, withdrawn from market
- Controlled drug
- No
Sequence
The first 29 amino acids of human GHRH. Also written GRF 1-29.
The short version
What it does
Sold to raise your own growth hormone, for muscle, recovery, sleep and anti-ageing. It was once a real prescription medicine used to test and treat growth problems in children.
How it does it
Copies the instruction your brain sends to the gland that releases growth hormone. Unlike injecting growth hormone itself, it works through your own system, so the release still happens in natural bursts.
The catch
It was approved, marketed, and then withdrawn from sale. Not for safety reasons, as far as anyone has shown, but commercial ones. That means it once had a proper safety file and now has no marketed product anywhere.
Everything below goes into the detail, with sources.
Sermorelin is the most honest cautionary tale in the growth hormone group. It is not a research chemical that never made it. It is a medicine that made it, was sold, and then quietly disappeared.
At a glance
- Compound type
- Peptide, first 29 residues of human GHRH
- Also written
- GRF 1-29
- Drug class
- GHRH analogue
- Route
- Injection under the skin
- Former brand
- Geref, approved then discontinued
- Former licensed uses
- Pituitary function testing, and growth hormone deficiency in children
- UK status
- No current MHRA authorisation and no marketed product
- Relationship to others here
- Parent compound of CJC-1295, and a relative of tesamorelin
- In sport
- Named on the WADA Prohibited List, S2.2.4. Prohibited at all times.
01What it is
Growth hormone releasing hormone is 44 amino acids long. Sermorelin is the first 29 of them, which turned out to be the portion carrying the biological activity. It is the parent compound of the whole GHRH group: CJC-1295 is a modified, longer-lasting version of the same fragment, and tesamorelin is a stabilised full-length analogue.
Because it acts on the pituitary rather than replacing the hormone, growth hormone is still released in the body's natural pulses. That is the pharmacological argument for GHRH analogues over injected growth hormone, and it is a reasonable one.
02How it came about
Sermorelin was approved and marketed as Geref, used both as a diagnostic agent for testing pituitary function and in the treatment of growth hormone deficiency in children.
It was discontinued. Reporting attributes this to commercial factors rather than a withdrawal on safety grounds, though the distinction is not always cleanly documented and anyone relying on it should check the primary record. In the US it moved into compounding pharmacy use, which is where its current visibility comes from, and it is one of the compounds whose compounding status has been contested.
03UK legal and licensing status
Sermorelin has no current MHRA marketing authorisation and no marketed UK product. Supplying it for human use here without authorisation is prohibited. It is not a controlled drug.
Athletes: WADA lists GHRH and its analogues under S2.2.4, naming sermorelin explicitly alongside CJC-1293, CJC-1295 and tesamorelin. Prohibited at all times, in and out of competition, and strict liability applies.
04How it works
It binds GHRH receptors on the pituitary, prompting release of growth hormone, which raises IGF-1 downstream. Its action is short, so the resulting release is pulsatile rather than sustained, which is closer to normal physiology than the long-acting analogues achieve.
05What it is not
Claims that attach themselves to this compound and do not hold up.
- Not currently a marketed medicine anywhere. The approved product was discontinued.
- Not evidence for the whole GHRH category. Its approval was for diagnosis and for treating deficiency in children, not for body composition in healthy adults.
- Not an anti-ageing treatment. Nothing in its approval touched ageing, and the trials that would test that were never run.
- Not exempt in sport. Named explicitly on the WADA Prohibited List.
06What the evidence shows
Sermorelin has something almost nothing else in the unlicensed part of this register has: it was assessed by regulators and approved. There is real trial evidence for its diagnostic use and for treating growth hormone deficiency in children.
A discontinued approval is a genuinely odd status. The safety file exists, historically. But there is no current marketed product, no current SPC to consult, and no manufacturer maintaining pharmacovigilance. The evidence that supported the original approval also said nothing about healthy adults seeking muscle or slower ageing, which is what it is now sold for.
There is some phase 2 and review-level literature on GHRH analogues in ageing adults with reduced growth hormone output. No phase 3 programme supports the marketed claims.
Whether raising growth hormone benefits healthy adults, which is the question the entire category rests on and which has never been properly answered. Also current product quality, since nothing is being manufactured to a marketing authorisation.
07Reported harms
The historical approval means recognised effects are documented: injection site reactions, flushing, headache, and the effects on glucose handling common to anything that raises growth hormone.
With no marketed product there is no current SPC and no Yellow Card route for grey-market material, which carries the usual identity, purity and sterility problems.
08Interactions and cautions
Growth hormone opposes insulin, so glucose control can be affected and diabetes medication may need attention. Corticosteroids and thyroid hormone interact with the growth hormone axis. Without a current SPC there is no authoritative list.
09Stopping
Growth hormone and IGF-1 return to baseline. Effects attributable to fluid retention resolve.
10Monitoring
In its historical clinical use, IGF-1 and glucose, under specialist supervision. Clinics selling it now often measure IGF-1, which confirms the compound is doing something without telling you whether that is good for you.
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 actually been tested for growth hormone deficiency through an endocrinology pathway?
- Why was the licensed product discontinued, and does the seller know?
- What would raising growth hormone long-term do to my glucose control?
12Common questions
Is sermorelin FDA approved?
It was approved and marketed as Geref, and was subsequently discontinued. There is no current marketed product. In the US it is used in compounding pharmacies, a status that has been contested.
Is sermorelin safer than HGH?
It works through your own pituitary, so release stays pulsatile, which is a genuine pharmacological difference and arguably a more physiological one. It is not a demonstrated safety advantage in healthy adults, because those trials were not done. Legally the two are very different: growth hormone is a controlled drug in the UK and this is not.
Why was Geref discontinued?
Reporting attributes it to commercial factors rather than a safety withdrawal, but the documentation is not always clean, and it is worth checking the primary record rather than taking anyone's summary, including this one.
Is it banned in sport?
Yes. WADA names sermorelin explicitly under growth hormone releasing factors, prohibited at all times.
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.
- Prohibited List, S2.2.4 growth hormone releasing factorsWADA
- Sermorelin clinical literaturePubMed
- CJC-1295 record/compounds/cjc-1295/
- Tesamorelin record/compounds/tesamorelin/
- Unlicensed medicines guidanceMHRA
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