CJC-1295 / GHRH ANALOG / READING ROOM
A slow-tide molecule, a small body of papers, read carefully.
An editorial reading room for the published CJC-1295 record — from the 2005 rat discovery study to the 2024 FDA briefing — without bro-science and without sales pitches.
The short version
CJC-1295 is a synthetic peptide designed to mimic growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) — the signal your hypothalamus sends to the pituitary to release growth hormone (GH). The long-acting DAC form does this with an unusual trick: it binds covalently to a protein in the blood called albumin, which keeps it active for five to eight days from a single injection instead of the seven minutes that native GHRH manages.
The peer-reviewed file is small. One rat discovery paper in 2005, one Phase 1 human study in 2006 showing sustained GH and IGF-1 elevation, a companion paper confirming the body's natural GH pulse pattern stays intact, and a Phase 2 trial that was halted the same year before it produced efficacy data.
CJC-1295 has never been approved for any human use. The FDA closed routine compounding access in 2024 and WADA bans it at all times. Read the effects and safety page for what the research-use community reports — and what the literature flags as cautions.
What CJC-1295 actually is
CJC-1295 is a 30-amino-acid synthetic analog of growth hormone-releasing hormone, built on the first 29 residues of human GHRH with four protective amino-acid substitutions and, in the long-acting DAC variant, a C-terminal maleimide that covalently tethers the peptide to circulating serum albumin after subcutaneous injection [1].
That single design choice — the tether — is the whole story. Native GHRH has a plasma half-life of roughly seven minutes. The four substitutions in modified GRF(1-29) push that to about thirty minutes by resisting DPP-4 cleavage and deamidation [8]. The DAC tether to albumin Cys34 takes the half-life from minutes to days [2][3]. In healthy adults, plasma half-life across single-dose cohorts ranged 5.8 to 8.1 days [3].
The rest of the molecule's reputation — sleep, body composition, recovery — flows from one mechanism: bind the GHRH receptor on anterior-pituitary somatotrophs, raise the trough of growth-hormone secretion without abolishing its pulsatility, and let downstream IGF-1 do the work [4].
What the published record covers
The peer-reviewed file is small and finite. A rat discovery paper in Endocrinology in 2005 [1]. A Phase 1 pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic study in JCEM in 2006 with healthy adult cohorts [2][3]. A companion JCEM paper later that year showing that GH pulsatility is preserved under continuous CJC-1295 stimulation rather than flattened into a tonic signal [4]. A GHRH-knockout mouse study in AJP-Endocrinology and Metabolism the same year [5]. A serum-protein biomarker paper in 2009 [6]. A netnographic study in 2016 documenting non-clinical online use [11]. A WADA-method validation in 2024 [12]. And two 2024 FDA Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee briefings that closed routine compounding access [14][17].
The Phase 2 trial in HIV-associated visceral adiposity — NCT00267527, n=192 — was terminated in October 2006 after a participant died from an acute coronary event roughly two hours after the eleventh weekly dose [7]. Independent review judged the event unrelated to study drug. The program did not restart. Primary efficacy data were never published.
That is the literature. Everything else is extrapolation.
The DAC distinction, in one paragraph
CJC-1295 with DAC and CJC-1295 "without DAC" are not dose-frequency variants of one drug. They are two compounds with the same 29-residue backbone and four-substitution backbone protection, but different pharmacokinetics [8]. The DAC variant — what "CJC-1295" technically refers to in the primary literature — bears the maleimide that bioconjugates to serum albumin and produces a multi-day half-life [1][3]. The non-DAC variant (modified GRF 1-29, sometimes labelled Mod GRF 1-29) lacks the maleimide and clears in roughly thirty minutes [8]. They behave differently in the body, and conflating them is the single most common error in non-peer-reviewed sources.
Why the modifier on this domain
There is no real CJC-1295 clinic. The compound is not FDA-approved for any indication [14]. Compounding-pharmacy access was closed when CJC-1295 was removed from FDA Category 2 effective September 27, 2024 [14] and was not added to the Section 503A bulk drug substances list at the October and December 2024 PCAC meetings [17]. CJC-1295 is also prohibited at all times under WADA Section S2 — Peptide Hormones, Growth Factors, Related Substances, and Mimetics [16].
The "clinic" in this site's name is editorial framing. It marks the relationship between the publisher and the literature — a reading room arranged around a small body of papers — not a service offered to anyone. We do not sell, prescribe, dispense, or counsel. See About for the publisher's full posture.
How to read this site
Start at Research for the mechanism and the chronological story of the human and animal studies that anchor the record. Dosage summarizes the research-context dose ranges used in the published work — not human use guidance. FAQ answers the dozen questions readers consistently arrive with. References lists every citation with DOIs and PubMed URLs. About is short and explicit about what this publisher is and is not.
A practical note on register. The prose here keeps to a quiet editorial register because the underlying material rewards it. The single Phase 1 study used four dose cohorts and roughly a dozen participants per arm [2]. The Phase 2 trial enrolled 192 people and stopped mid-program after the eleventh weekly injection [7]. The proteomic biomarker paper followed eleven young men for one week after a single dose [6]. These are small papers. They are not the foundation of a clinical practice. They are, however, enough to anchor a careful reading — which is what this site offers.
What this site will not do
We will not invent dose schedules. The published human dataset does not contain a maintenance dose, a titration schedule, or a long-term safety profile, and writing one would be both fictional and irresponsible [2][7]. We will not link to compounding-pharmacy sites or peptide-marketplace retailers. We will not name brand-name recombinant GH preparations or marketed GHRH analogs by trade name — generic INN naming only.
We will not predict regulatory outcomes either. FDA could reopen Section 503A review of CJC-1295 if new sponsor data appears [14][17]. WADA could update Section S2 in future revisions of the Prohibited List [16]. Both are possible. Neither is anticipated in the body copy here, because anticipating regulatory changes is speculation, and this reading room runs on the literature as it exists today.