# CJC-1295 Clinic — Independent reading room for the CJC-1295 research literature > A coastal-studio editorial summary of CJC-1295 (DAC and non-DAC) — what the 2005 rat paper, the 2006 Phase 1 trial, and the 2024 FDA decisions actually say. Research-context only; 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](/effects) 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](/about) for the publisher's full posture. ## How to read this site Start at [Research](/research) for the mechanism and the chronological story of the human and animal studies that anchor the record. [Dosage](/dosage) summarizes the research-context dose ranges used in the published work — not human use guidance. [FAQ](/faq) answers the dozen questions readers consistently arrive with. [References](/references) lists every citation with DOIs and PubMed URLs. [About](/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. --- An independent editorial digest of the peer-reviewed CJC-1295 literature — not a clinic, not a vendor, not clinical counsel.