Peptide education

CJC-1295 no DAC + Ipamorelin

CJC + Ipamorelin · Mod GRF + Ipamorelin · Mod GRF 1-29 + Ipamorelin

CJC-1295 no DAC + ipamorelin is the standard clinic growth-hormone stack: a short-acting GHRH analog paired with a ghrelin-mimetic secretagogue, meant to push GH from two directions at once. The two-pathway logic is legitimate endocrinology. The evidence usually cited for it is not this blend's: the CJC human studies used the long-acting DAC form, and ipamorelin's human data are a short IV pharmacology study plus a clinical outcome trial that came back negative. No human trial has tested the no-DAC combination vial that clinics and vendors actually sell.

The stack is built on sound receptor logic and borrowed evidence: the CJC data come from a different, longer-acting molecule, and ipamorelin's one real outcome trial found no benefit over placebo. The blend itself has never been measured in people.

By the Peptides Media Editorial Team Editorial policy8 min read

Market positioningGH-secretagogue blend

EvidenceComponent data; no direct blend trial

Common routeUsually injectable in market discussion

Main issueCJC identity and product quality

Overview

Quick answer

This combination is neither CJC-1295 DAC alone nor ipamorelin alone. FDA materials separate DAC and non-DAC CJC-1295-related substances, warn that market naming is inconsistent, and describe products that often fail to say whether the CJC component is free base, acetate, TFA, with DAC, or without DAC. That uncertainty matters before comparing benefits.

What is it?

A two-peptide injectable combination: a non-DAC CJC-1295 or Modified-GRF-style GHRH analog on one side, ipamorelin on the other. One imitates the hypothalamic GHRH signal, the other the ghrelin-receptor signal, and both aim at the pituitary's GH release.

What do people use it for?

Cutting, recomposition, recovery, sleep, injury repair, energy, and anti-aging; clinics call it natural GH support. Those are the marketing categories. No controlled human trial of the blend has measured any of them.

What route, amount, and schedule details are reported?

The published numbers belong to the components: subcutaneous CJC-1295 DAC at 30 to 250 micrograms/kg over 28 to 49 days, and IV ipamorelin infusions with GH peaking in under an hour. Community schedules describe 100 to 300 mcg of each component by subcutaneous injection, often pre-bed, in 8 to 12 week cycles. The first set is a different molecule and route; the second is reported practice, not a studied regimen.

How useful are the component data?

Useful for explaining why the stack exists, not for certifying it. DAC-form CJC data overstate what a no-DAC vial can claim because the exposure lasts days, and ipamorelin's acute GH release never translated into a clinical win when it was actually tested for one.

Reported practice

Commonly reported protocol

CJC-1295 no DAC + Ipamorelin community-reported use

Route

Subcutaneous injection

Typical amount

Blend vials are commonly sold as 5 mg plus 5 mg or 10 mg plus 10 mg of the two components. Most reports describe 100 to 300 mcg of each component per injection.

Frequency

One to three times daily, often a single pre-bed injection, in most descriptions

Duration

Typically 8 to 12 week cycles

Clinic and community combination protocols. Community-reported patterns, not verified by controlled human trials and not a use recommendation. Full use-pattern detail

Evidence

Evidence snapshot

Best-supported statementSeparate GH-axis pathways

CJC-1295 DAC studies in healthy adults reported prolonged GH and IGF-1 increases, and an ipamorelin healthy-volunteer PK/PD study reported acute GH release. That supports component pharmacology, not direct blend efficacy.

PMID 16352683 PMID 17018654 PMID 10496658

Direct blend evidenceNo direct blend trial found

No peer-reviewed human efficacy trial has been confirmed for the marketed CJC-1295 no DAC + ipamorelin blend. Popular uses therefore depend on component extrapolation, mechanism, clinic marketing, and personal-use reports.

FDA

Closest outcome studyIpamorelin postoperative-ileus trial was negative

The clearest published clinical-outcome ipamorelin study was in postoperative ileus, where ipamorelin found no statistically significant efficacy versus placebo on primary or secondary analyses.

ClinicalTrials.gov FDA

Product identityCJC product names are inconsistent

FDA described inconsistent naming across CJC-1295-related substances. Marketed products often leave the exact CJC form or salt form ambiguous.

FDA

Claims

Common claims vs evidence

Claim	Human evidence	Mechanistic evidence	Anecdotal evidence	Verdict
The blend builds muscle or improves body composition.	The cited CJC-1295 DAC human studies measured GH and IGF-1, while the cited ipamorelin human data measured short-term GH release or a different postoperative outcome. None of those sources tested the marketed blend for lean mass, fat loss, strength, or physique outcomes.	GH and IGF-1 biology makes the claim understandable because the GH axis affects substrate use, fluid balance, tissue remodeling, and growth signals. Blend-level body-composition outcomes still need blend-level evidence.	Clinics, vendors, protocol blogs, and forums commonly attach the blend to cutting, recomposition, recovery, and muscle-preservation language. Those reports explain demand and use goals.	This is a real market use case, but the cited human studies do not measure lean mass, fat loss, strength, or physique outcomes for the finished blend. PMID 16352683 PMID 10496658 FDA
It improves sleep, recovery, injury healing, or anti-aging.	The controlled human studies behind the component discussion did not test this blend for sleep quality, recovery time, injury healing, skin aging, longevity, or day-to-day vitality.	GH-axis stimulation can sound relevant to tissue repair and sleep because GH secretion is tied to endocrine rhythms and growth signaling. A gray-market blend still has its own product and outcome questions.	Online discussion and clinic marketing often use this language, especially around nightly injections, sleep, recovery, and feeling younger. Read those reports alongside placebo effects, training, calorie changes, concurrent drugs, and dose differences.	Common in clinic and user discussion. The cited studies explain why the idea exists, but they do not measure sleep, recovery, injury-healing, or aging outcomes for the finished blend. FDA
The no-DAC CJC component can borrow CJC-1295 DAC trial results.	The main CJC human studies involve the long-acting DAC form. FDA materials separate CJC-1295 DAC and non-DAC active moieties and warn that naming differences are not cosmetic.	A non-DAC GHRH analog may share pathway logic with DAC CJC-1295, but the DAC modification changes exposure. Shorter-acting and longer-acting products are not interchangeable just because both point at the GH axis.	Market listings and forum posts often blur "CJC", "Modified GRF", "CJC-1295 no DAC", and "CJC-1295 DAC" into one shopping and protocol category.	DAC data are a weak proxy for a no-DAC blend because the CJC exposure, companion peptide, and product identity are different. FDA PMID 16352683
Ipamorelin has established clinical efficacy for broad use.	Ipamorelin has human PK/PD evidence for GH release, but the cited postoperative-ileus clinical program found no statistically significant efficacy advantage over placebo.	Ipamorelin is a ghrelin-mimetic secretagogue, so acute GH release fits its pharmacology. The negative postoperative trial shows why GH signaling does not automatically produce a clinical win.	Clinics and peptide sellers often describe ipamorelin as a cleaner or gentler secretagogue inside stacks. That marketing description is not outcome evidence.	Accurate wording is narrow: ipamorelin can stimulate GH acutely in human pharmacology work; broader claims need outcome-specific trials. PMID 10496658 ClinicalTrials.gov FDA
Vendor purity or a COA makes the injectable product safe.	The human trials do not tell you whether a gray-market finished product is well made. FDA compounding materials raise separate concerns around identity, immunogenicity, aggregation, impurities, endotoxin testing, and missing route-specific safety data.	Peptides can aggregate or degrade, and injectable products add sterility, endotoxin, concentration, storage, and reconstitution concerns that are separate from whether a molecule has a plausible receptor target.	Vendor listings often emphasize purity percentages, lyophilized vials, research-use language, and blends. Those details do not substitute for FDA-reviewed manufacturing controls or a finished injectable with documented quality controls.	A single purity claim does not answer the injection questions: sterility, endotoxin, concentration, impurities, aggregation, storage, and whether both blend components are present at the stated amounts. FDA

Bottom line

Main takeaway

If you just heard the name

This blend is popular because two-pathway GH support is easy to understand. What it does not have is a human trial of the combination for any of the things clinics sell it for.

If you are comparing options

Run four separate checks: what CJC form is actually in the vial, what the DAC studies showed, what ipamorelin's own data showed (including the negative ileus trial), and whether the quality paperwork covers both peptides.

If you are checking patient claims

Establish which CJC form the patient means, the route and schedule, the source of the claim, and whether glucose, IGF-1, edema, or injection-site issues were ever monitored.

Best starting points

The evidence base is component pharmacology plus one negative outcome program. Every blend-level question about exposure, outcomes, and long-term safety is still open.

Identity

What it is

The blend pairs a GHRH-side peptide with a ghrelin-side peptide. The CJC or Modified GRF component imitates the hypothalamic releasing hormone; ipamorelin works the ghrelin receptor. Together they recreate a synergy that endocrine studies documented decades ago.

The naming is the first trap. FDA materials describe CJC-1295-related products that often do not say whether the CJC is free base, acetate, TFA, with DAC, or without, and the DAC version is a much longer-acting molecule with the actual human trial data.

The second trap is ipamorelin's reputation as the clean secretagogue. It did release GH acutely in a human pharmacology study, and its selectivity argument is real, but when it was tested for a clinical outcome, postoperative ileus, it did not beat placebo.

What remains is a reasonable mechanism, a negative outcome signal on one half, an identity problem on the other, and a combined product nobody has studied.

How people talk about it online

Forums treat CJC plus ipamorelin as the default GH stack: nightly pre-bed injections, cutting blocks, sleep and hunger reports, flushing and tingling, and endless with-DAC versus no-DAC debates.

Clinic pages translate the same stack into anti-aging language, while vendor listings lead with vial sizes like 5 mg plus 5 mg, purity percentages, and research-use disclaimers.

Both conversations assume the blend works the way the studies read. The studies were run on different molecules, by different routes, for different endpoints, and the stack's reputation lives in that gap.

Use context

Routes, doses, and cycle patterns

For this blend, the concrete numbers come from component studies. Real-world sources describe injectable paired use, repeated dosing, and multi-week cycles, but not a studied regimen for the marketed no-DAC + ipamorelin product.

Human studies and product labels

CJC-1295 DAC healthy-adult PK/PD studies

Purpose: GH and IGF-1 biomarker stimulation
Context: Randomized healthy-adult studies of CJC-1295 DAC, not no-DAC blend
Route: Subcutaneous
Amount: Single and multiple doses from 30 to 250 micrograms/kg in the healthy-adult study program
Frequency: Single-dose and repeated-dose schedules in controlled study settings
Duration: 28 to 49 days in the main healthy-adult study program

These data explain why CJC-1295 became linked to GH and IGF-1, but the DAC form has longer exposure, so it should not be used as a stand-in for a no-DAC CJC + ipamorelin vial.

PMID 16352683 PMID 17018654

Registered CJC-1295 visceral-obesity study

Purpose: HIV-associated visceral-obesity research
Context: ClinicalTrials.gov registry context; not an approved product label
Route: Subcutaneous
Amount: Escalating weekly arms listed as 60, 90, 120 micrograms/kg or 60, 120, 240 micrograms/kg
Frequency: Once weekly in the registry schedule
Duration: 12-week study structure with additional continuation described in the research summary

This shows a historical disease-program attempt. It does not include a completed public efficacy result for the no-DAC + ipamorelin blend.

NCT00267527 FDA

Ipamorelin healthy-volunteer PK/PD study

Purpose: Short-term GH-release pharmacology
Context: Human pharmacology study
Route: IV infusion
Amount: 4.21 to 140.45 nmol/kg over 15 minutes
Frequency: Controlled study administrations
Duration: Short-term sampling with peak GH response reported around 0.67 hours

This supports narrow human secretagogue pharmacology for ipamorelin. Chronic blend use, body-composition outcomes, and clinic-style injectable schedules are separate from this IV study.

PMID 10496658

Ipamorelin postoperative-ileus trial context

Purpose: Recovery of gastrointestinal function after bowel resection
Context: Randomized postoperative clinical-outcome program summarized in FDA materials
Route: IV
Amount: 0.03 mg/kg
Frequency: Twice daily
Duration: Postoperative day 1 through day 7 or discharge

The program is important because it tested a clinical outcome and found no statistically significant efficacy versus placebo in the analyses summarized by FDA.

ClinicalTrials.gov FDA

Real-world discussion

Clinic and community combination protocols

Purpose: GH-pulse stacking for recovery, sleep, and body composition
Context: Clinics, telehealth programs, and forums
Route: Subcutaneous injection
Amount: Blend vials are commonly sold as 5 mg plus 5 mg or 10 mg plus 10 mg of the two components. Most reports describe 100 to 300 mcg of each component per injection.
Frequency: One to three times daily, often a single pre-bed injection, in most descriptions
Duration: Typically 8 to 12 week cycles

The pairing imitates studied GHRH-plus-secretagogue synergy, but the combination vials themselves are unverified products, and fixed blend ratios remove the ability to adjust components independently. Not verified as a regimen; context only.

What varies

Identity: with-DAC, no-DAC, Modified GRF, free base, acetate, and TFA language changes what evidence can be borrowed.
Goal: body-composition, sleep, recovery, injury-healing, and anti-aging claims require different evidence than short-term GH release.
Route: IV study exposure, subcutaneous market use, oral/nasal/troche marketing, and research-use vials raise separate safety questions.
Amount and frequency: micrograms/kg or mg/kg schedules describe what happened in component studies, not a settled blend regimen.
Product quality: sterility, endotoxin, aggregates, impurities, concentration, and identity have to be checked separately from a headline purity percentage.

Human data

Human evidence

The human record here is entirely component-level. Subcutaneous CJC-1295 DAC raised GH and IGF-1 for days in healthy adults, but the DAC form's long exposure is precisely why it cannot stand in for a no-DAC vial. IV ipamorelin produced a dose-proportional, transient GH response in healthy volunteers. Ipamorelin's closest outcome test, a postoperative-ileus program at 0.03 mg/kg IV twice daily, found no statistically significant benefit over placebo. No human efficacy trial exists for the marketed no-DAC CJC plus ipamorelin combination.

Evidence maturity

The blend rests entirely on component data; no human trial has tested the combined product for any marketed use.

Component pharmacology

Separate human studies showed CJC-1295 DAC raising GH and IGF-1 and IV ipamorelin triggering acute GH release.

Closest outcome trial

Ipamorelin's postoperative-ileus program found no statistically significant efficacy versus placebo.

Blend-level evidence

No controlled human efficacy trial exists for the marketed no-DAC CJC + ipamorelin blend.

Market reality

Clinic and gray-market combination vials, with FDA-flagged CJC identity problems and no approved blend product.

Study / evidence area	Population	Design	Product context	Main outcome	Limitations	Weight
CJC-1295 DAC healthy-adult PK/PD study PMID 16352683	Healthy adults	Randomized controlled human pharmacology study	Investigational CJC-1295 DAC	Subcutaneous CJC-1295 DAC produced prolonged GH and IGF-1 increases in healthy adults.	DAC form only, biomarker outcomes, small controlled setting, and no direct testing of no-DAC CJC or the ipamorelin blend.	moderate
CJC-1295 DAC pulsatility study PMID 17018654	Healthy men aged 20 to 40 years	Human physiology study	Investigational CJC-1295 DAC	GH secretion increased while pulsatility was preserved after single-dose CJC-1295 DAC exposure.	Single-agent DAC physiology is adjacent evidence; no-DAC CJC products need their own exposure and outcome data.	weak
CJC-1295 HIV visceral-obesity registry NCT00267527 FDA	People with HIV-associated visceral obesity	ClinicalTrials.gov registry context	Investigational CJC-1295	The registry lists once-weekly escalating CJC-1295 schedules for visceral obesity research.	Registry context does not include a completed public efficacy result and does not back the marketed no-DAC + ipamorelin blend.	weak
Ipamorelin healthy-volunteer PK/PD PMID 10496658	Healthy male volunteers	Human pharmacology study	Investigational ipamorelin	IV ipamorelin exposure produced dose-proportional pharmacokinetics and a transient GH response.	Acute hormone release is not chronic subcutaneous blend use, patient outcomes, body composition, sleep, or recovery evidence.	weak
Ipamorelin postoperative-ileus program ClinicalTrials.gov FDA	Adults after bowel resection	Randomized postoperative clinical-outcome program summarized by FDA	Investigational ipamorelin	FDA materials describe IV 0.03 mg/kg twice daily from postoperative day 1 through day 7 or discharge, with no statistically significant efficacy difference versus placebo.	The indication and IV hospital setting are not comparable to wellness blend use, and the outcome result was negative.	weak

Cautions

Safety and unknowns

Long-term safety for the actual no-DAC + ipamorelin blend remains untested in the human evidence.
GH-axis stimulation can intersect with IGF-1, glucose handling, fluid retention, edema, carpal-tunnel-like symptoms, headaches, sleep changes, and endocrine monitoring questions; component biomarker studies do not resolve those issues for chronic blend use.
FDA materials on CJC-1295-related substances raise concerns about naming, characterization, immunogenicity, impurity complexity, aggregation, and route-specific safety uncertainty.
FDA materials on ipamorelin discuss limited safety information for proposed compounded-use contexts and highlight concerns such as peptide impurities, aggregation, and missing information relevant to injectable quality.
The blend may be used alongside other peptides, GLP-1 drugs, anabolic agents, thyroid drugs, sleep aids, or calorie restriction in real life, making anecdotal benefit and adverse-effect reports difficult to interpret.

Product quality

A vial label is only a starting point

The first quality question is whether the product really contains the intended non-DAC CJC-related substance and ipamorelin at the stated strength.

FDA documents make clear that CJC naming and form disclosure are not trivial. DAC status, salt form, and chemical identity can change what evidence and safety assumptions apply.

Seller paperwork focused on identity or HPLC purity still does not document sterile injectable quality, endotoxin control, aggregate control, impurity characterization, stability, or reliable concentration assumptions after mixing.

Exact CJC form

"CJC-1295", "CJC no DAC", "Modified GRF", free base, acetate, TFA, and DAC-linked products are often blurred in marketing, but they are not interchangeable evidence points.

Ipamorelin form

FDA reviewed ipamorelin free base and acetate separately in compounding materials, and finished-product behavior can depend on formulation and manufacturing details.

Sterility and endotoxin

Injectable use makes sterility and endotoxin testing essential questions that sit outside a simple HPLC purity percentage.

Aggregates and peptide impurities

Peptide aggregates and related impurities can change immunogenicity and safety risk, especially when products are compounded or sold as research-use vials.

Concentration and storage

Lyophilized peptides, blends, reconstitution, shipping heat, storage time, and concentration claims all affect what a user may actually be exposed to.

Mechanism

How it is proposed to work

The blend is marketed as a two-pathway GH-axis stack. A CJC/Modified-GRF-like peptide is meant to imitate growth hormone-releasing hormone signaling, and ipamorelin is meant to act through the ghrelin or growth-hormone secretagogue receptor pathway. The marketed idea is stronger GH pulses without giving recombinant growth hormone directly.

CJC-1295 DAC data show how a long-acting GHRH analog can raise GH and IGF-1 for days, but DAC-linked exposure is exactly why those data are a poor direct match for a no-DAC product.

Ipamorelin's human PK/PD data support acute GH-release pharmacology. Chronic pairing with a CJC-like peptide needs its own body-composition, sleep, recovery, and aging outcome evidence.

Class-level GHRH plus GHRP or ghrelin-pathway synergy is biologically plausible, but blend-level clinical promises need controlled human outcome studies on the actual product and route.

The blend pairs a non-DAC CJC/Modified-GRF-style GHRH analog with a ghrelin-receptor secretagogue (ipamorelin): the two ends of the GH-release axis in one vial, imitating the synergy documented in endocrine studies.

FAQ

Common questions

Why are CJC-1295 no DAC and ipamorelin sold together?

Because they hit the GH axis from two sides: a GHRH analog plus a ghrelin-receptor secretagogue, mirroring the synergy seen in endocrine studies. The pairing is the most common secretagogue stack in community use.

What do blend schedules look like?

Community protocols commonly describe 100 to 300 mcg of each component per injection, one to three times daily or as a single pre-bed dose, in 8 to 12 week cycles.

Is the blend better than the components separately?

There is no direct comparison. The blend is a convenience product with a fixed ratio, which also removes the ability to adjust either component independently.

Details

Technical details

CJC-1295 no DAC + Ipamorelin technical details

Class

Growth-hormone secretagogue blend

Components

Non-DAC CJC/Modified-GRF-style GHRH analog plus ipamorelin

Approval status

No FDA-approved blend drug product found

Product status

No approved blend product found; non-approved products need product-specific review

Strongest human data

Component biomarker data; no confirmed direct blend efficacy trial

Common route in market discussion

Usually subcutaneous injection; other marketed formats appear in FDA-reviewed market summaries

Key evidence limit

CJC DAC, no-DAC CJC, ipamorelin alone, and the blend are often conflated

Key quality issue

Exact identity, DAC status, salt form, sterility, endotoxin, aggregates, and impurities

Human PK data

None for the combination. Components have separate profiles: about 30 minutes for the no-DAC backbone and about 2 hours for ipamorelin.

Sources

References

1.
PubMed. Prolonged stimulation of growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor I secretion by CJC-1295, a long-acting analog of GH-releasing hormone, in healthy adults 2006.
doi:10.1210/jc.2005-1536 PMID:16352683 Accessed 2026-06-09.
Randomized placebo-controlled healthy-adult study reporting dose-dependent GH and IGF-1 increases after subcutaneous CJC-1295 with no serious adverse reactions in that study context.
2.
PubMed. Pulsatile secretion of growth hormone (GH) persists during continuous stimulation by CJC-1295, a long-acting GH-releasing hormone analog 2006.
doi:10.1210/jc.2006-1702 PMID:17018654 Accessed 2026-06-09.
Healthy-men study reporting increased trough and mean GH secretion and IGF-1 with preserved GH pulsatility one week after a single injection.
3.
PubMed. Pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modeling of ipamorelin, a growth hormone releasing peptide, in human volunteers 1999.
doi:10.1023/A:1018955126402 PMID:10496658 Accessed 2026-06-09.
Healthy-volunteer dose-escalation PK/PD study showing dose-proportional exposure and a transient growth-hormone response; useful for narrow human pharmacology context, not patient-outcome or wellness claims.
4.
FDA. December 4, 2024 Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee (PCAC) Meeting 2024.
Accessed 2026-06-09.
FDA briefing distinguishes DAC and non-DAC CJC-1295 forms as separate active moieties, states none of the reviewed substances are components of FDA-approved drugs, and summarizes characterization and safety concerns.
5.
FDA. FDA Briefing Document: Ipamorelin-related bulk drug substances 2024.
Accessed 2026-06-09.
FDA PCAC briefing covering ipamorelin free base and acetate, the evaluated GHD and postoperative-ileus contexts, no FDA-approved drug product, and FDA's recommendation against 503A Bulks List inclusion.
6.
ClinicalTrials.gov. ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01280344
Accessed 2026-06-09.
Official registry page for the ipamorelin postoperative-ileus / gastrointestinal-function recovery study context referenced in the FDA briefing; used for registry context, not outcome conclusions.
7.
FDA. Certain Bulk Drug Substances for Use in Compounding that May Present Significant Safety Risks 2026.
Accessed 2026-06-08.
FDA summarizes potential significant safety risks and missing safety information for several nominated peptide bulk substances.
8.
ClinicalTrials.gov. A Study to Evaluate CJC 1295 in HIV Patients With Visceral Obesity 2006.
NCT00267527 Accessed 2026-06-09.
ClinicalTrials.gov registry anchor for a Phase 2 HIV-associated visceral-obesity study; used for registry context rather than approved-use or completed-benefit claims.