Peptide education
CJC-1295 DAC
CJC-1295 with DAC · CJC 1295 DAC · DAC:GRF
CJC-1295 DAC is the long-acting version of a GHRH analog: a chemical add-on called DAC binds the peptide to albumin in the bloodstream and stretches its action from minutes to about a week. The engineering is confirmed in humans. Small 2006 studies in healthy adults showed GH elevated for at least six days and IGF-1 for nine to eleven days after a single subcutaneous injection, with natural GH pulses preserved. What those studies never measured is everything it is sold for: fat loss, muscle, sleep, recovery, and anti-aging have no controlled human outcome trial behind them, and no FDA-approved CJC-1295 DAC product exists.
CJC-1295 DAC does what it was built to do: one injection keeps GH and IGF-1 elevated for days, confirmed in small human studies. The physique and anti-aging reputation rests on that hormone data plus a disease program that ended without ever publishing a result.
Overview
Quick answer
CJC-1295 DAC is the long-acting DAC-modified form, not CJC-1295 without DAC, Modified GRF 1-29, ipamorelin blends, or tesamorelin. Human DAC dosing data belong to the DAC form, not to no-DAC products or mixed-secretagogue stacks.
What is CJC-1295 DAC?
A GHRH analog modified with a drug-affinity complex, the DAC, that anchors it to albumin and extends its half-life to roughly a week. It pushes the pituitary to release more GH rather than supplying GH, and the downstream IGF-1 rise is the effect people are actually buying.
What do people use or talk about it for?
Fat loss, recomposition, muscle, recovery, sleep, anti-aging: the market treats sustained GH elevation as a body-composition tool, and the weekly dosing makes it the convenient option in that conversation. The study record covers the hormone movement only; body composition, sleep, and recovery were not measured.
What route and dose patterns appear in the human literature?
Subcutaneous and weight-based: single ascending doses of 30 to 250 mcg/kg, repeated weekly or biweekly dosing over two weeks, and single 60 or 90 mcg/kg doses in a pulsatility study. A 12-week HIV visceral-obesity trial was registered but never posted a completed efficacy result.
Why does DAC status matter so much?
Because DAC is what makes the molecule long-acting, and the human data belong to the DAC form. FDA separates DAC and non-DAC CJC-1295 as different active moieties and describes naming and characterization problems across the whole family, so a vial that just says CJC-1295 has not told you what it is.
What does the evidence support?
A sustained GH and IGF-1 rise in healthy adults, from small short-term studies involving 63 exposed subjects in FDA's count. It does not support fat-loss, muscle, sleep, recovery, anti-aging, or GH-deficiency treatment claims, and it says little about the identity or sterility of anything sold online under the name.
Reported practice
Commonly reported protocol
Community long-acting GHRH protocols. Community-reported patterns, not verified by controlled human trials and not a use recommendation. Full use-pattern detail
Evidence
Evidence snapshot
Healthy-adult studies reported prolonged GH and IGF-1 increases after subcutaneous CJC-1295 exposure.
The cited CJC-1295 DAC human studies looked at hormones. They did not show fat loss, lean-mass gain, sleep improvement, injury recovery, anti-aging benefit, or growth hormone deficiency treatment.
FDA sources distinguish DAC and non-DAC active moieties and describe naming and characterization problems across CJC-1295-related substances.
A phase 2 HIV visceral-obesity study was registered for 12 weeks, but the registry entry has not posted a completed efficacy result.
Claims
Common claims vs evidence
| Claim | Human evidence | Mechanistic evidence | Anecdotal evidence | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CJC-1295 DAC raises growth hormone and IGF-1. | This is the strongest claim for CJC-1295 DAC. Healthy-adult studies reported sustained GH and IGF-1 increases after subcutaneous dosing, including effects that lasted for days after a single dose. | CJC-1295 DAC acts upstream of GH by stimulating the GHRH receptor. The DAC modification is intended to extend exposure through albumin-related binding chemistry. | Online and clinic discussions usually cite the GH/IGF-1 findings and then stretch them into broader body-composition or wellness promises. | The hormone effect is real in small studies. Physique, sleep, recovery, and anti-aging claims are a separate layer of interpretation. |
| CJC-1295 DAC burns fat or builds muscle. | The cited CJC-1295 DAC human studies measured GH and IGF-1, not controlled fat-loss or lean-mass outcomes. The registered HIV visceral-obesity program has not posted a completed public efficacy result. | GH and IGF-1 biology makes the claim understandable because the GH axis affects substrate use, tissue remodeling, and body composition. The cited DAC studies measured endocrine markers, not body-composition outcomes. | Fat-loss, cutting, body-recomposition, and muscle claims are common in clinic, vendor, protocol-blog, and forum-style discussion. | Common in the market and mechanistically plausible, but not a measured CJC-1295 DAC outcome in the cited human studies. |
| CJC-1295 DAC improves sleep, recovery, or anti-aging. | The human CJC-1295 DAC studies did not test sleep quality, workout recovery, injury healing, lifespan, or healthy-aging outcomes as primary endpoints. | GH-axis signaling is relevant to repair, metabolism, and sleep physiology, which explains why these claims travel with secretagogue products. | These themes show up in clinic, forum, vendor, and protocol-blog discussion, usually without consistent product identity, dosing, or follow-up data. | Reasonable to cover as a real-world use theme. The cited human studies, though, are not sleep, recovery, injury-healing, or anti-aging trials. |
| CJC-1295 DAC is a growth hormone deficiency treatment. | FDA sources state that clinical data are limited and that there are no effectiveness data for growth hormone deficiency in the reviewed CJC-1295-related substances. | Secretagogues depend on the body's ability to respond through the pituitary GH pathway. That is different from replacing GH directly. | Some clinic and wellness language can make CJC-1295 DAC sound like replacement therapy, but the evidence does not back that jump. | The cited sources do not support describing it as a growth hormone deficiency therapy. |
| DAC and no-DAC CJC-1295 are interchangeable. | The clearest human dosing data are for the long-acting DAC form. FDA sources treat DAC and non-DAC CJC-1295 forms as separate active moieties. | Duration is central to the DAC design. A short-acting GHRH analog and a DAC-linked analog can produce different exposure patterns even if names are casually shortened online. | Product listings and forum posts often blur CJC-1295, CJC-1295 DAC, CJC-1295 no DAC, Modified GRF, and secretagogue blends. | Keep the names separate before applying any study, protocol, safety, or product-quality statement. |
| Can seller paperwork show a CJC-1295 DAC vial matches study material? | No cited clinical source shows that gray-market or research-use products match the material used in the human studies. | The practical problem is product identity and handling: salt form, assay, impurities, aggregates, endotoxin, sterility, concentration, storage, and reconstitution all have to match the claim. | Vendor listings may show a molecule name, vial size, purity percentage, or COA, but FDA sources document naming and characterization problems for CJC-1295-related substances. | Useful lot evidence has to confirm the right DAC form and cover the injectable-quality questions that matter for that exact batch. |
Bottom line
Main takeaway
CJC-1295 DAC is a long-acting GH-releasing peptide whose one proven trick is keeping GH and IGF-1 elevated for days after an injection. Whether that produces fat loss, muscle, better sleep, or slower aging is exactly what no human trial has tested.
Before comparing products, force the name question: DAC, no-DAC, Modified GRF, a CJC/ipamorelin blend, or tesamorelin. The week-long dosing data belong to the DAC form only, and FDA has flagged naming confusion across all of them.
The core record is short: the 2006 Teichman healthy-adult studies, the Ionescu and Frohman pulsatility study, the unposted HIV visceral-obesity registry entry, and FDA's 2024 compounding review. That set covers the pharmacology, the dead disease program, and the product-identity problem.
Identity
What it is
CJC-1295 DAC is a synthetic GHRH analog built for duration. The peptide stimulates pituitary GH release like any GHRH analog, and the attached drug-affinity complex links it to circulating albumin so the signal lasts about a week instead of minutes.
The human proof of that design is real but small. In randomized 2006 studies, single subcutaneous doses of 30 to 250 mcg/kg kept GH elevated for at least six days and IGF-1 for nine to eleven days, and a separate physiology study in twelve men found GH pulses still firing on top of the elevated baseline. That is the complete positive record.
The outcome record is empty. The one disease-directed attempt, a 12-week phase 2 program in HIV-associated visceral obesity, was registered and never produced a completed public result; FDA's review also recounts an anecdotal fatal heart attack from the terminated program without assigning causality. No study in the cited record measured fat loss, lean mass, sleep, recovery, or aging outcomes.
Meanwhile the market runs on the name. Community protocols settled on weekly milligram dosing precisely because the DAC makes it convenient, and the sharpest internal debate, pulse versus bleed, is about whether sustained elevation is even the right goal. Add FDA's documented confusion between DAC, no-DAC, salt forms, and blends, and a vial labeled CJC-1295 still leaves the most basic question open: which molecule is actually inside.
How people talk about it online
Clinic and med-spa copy presents CJC-1295 DAC as a GH-optimization tool for body composition, recovery, sleep, and aging, leaning on the days-long IGF-1 rise as if it were an outcome. It is a biomarker, and the cited studies stop there.
Community protocol culture treats it as the convenient GHRH: 2 mg a week in one or two injections, usually for 8 to 12 weeks, often debated against no-DAC on pulse-versus-bleed grounds. Those schedules are conventions built around a half-life, not tested regimens.
Vendor listings add the identity problem: powders sold as CJC-1295 with or without DAC, unclear salt forms, and COAs that cannot confirm which moiety is actually in the vial. When FDA itself describes naming and characterization failures for this family, the paperwork question comes before any protocol question.
Use context
Routes, doses, and cycle patterns
The concrete human schedules for CJC-1295 DAC are subcutaneous and weight-based. The best-described study patterns include single ascending doses, repeated weekly or biweekly dosing over about two weeks, and a small single-dose pulsatility study. Real-world clinic, vendor, protocol-blog, and forum discussion is much less standardized: it often talks about GH increases, fat loss, recovery, sleep, anti-aging, or stacking, while leaving DAC status, salt form, vial quality, dose, frequency, and cycle length unclear.
Human studies and product labels
Single ascending-dose healthy-adult study
- Purpose
- GH and IGF-1 pharmacology in healthy adults
- Context
- Randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study
- Route
- Subcutaneous
- Amount
- 30, 60, 125, and 250 mcg/kg single ascending doses in FDA's summary
- Frequency
- Single dose in each ascending-dose arm
- Duration
- Hormone follow-up over days after dosing
The study reported dose-related GH and IGF-1 increases. FDA's summary describes GH elevation for at least 6 days and IGF-1 elevation for about 9 to 11 days after a single dose, with an estimated half-life measured in days.
Repeated-dose healthy-adult study
- Purpose
- Sustained IGF-1 response after repeated exposure
- Context
- Randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study
- Route
- Subcutaneous
- Amount
- 30 or 60 mcg/kg on days 0 and 14; 20 or 30 mcg/kg on days 0, 7, and 14
- Frequency
- Weekly or biweekly schedules in the study
- Duration
- Dosing over 14 days, with endocrine follow-up extending afterward
This DAC-specific schedule shows why the long-acting form differs from no-DAC CJC-1295. It reports study schedules and hormone effects, not a general-use cycle.
GH pulsatility physiology study
- Purpose
- Whether GH pulses persist during prolonged stimulation
- Context
- Healthy-men endocrine physiology study
- Route
- Subcutaneous
- Amount
- 60 or 90 mcg/kg single dose
- Frequency
- Single dose
- Duration
- GH pulsatility and IGF-1 assessed about one week later
Mean GH, trough GH, and IGF-1 rose while GH pulse frequency and pulse magnitude were not flattened. This helps explain the mechanism without showing a body-composition or recovery outcome.
HIV visceral-obesity phase 2 registry
- Purpose
- Disease-development attempt in HIV-associated visceral obesity
- Context
- ClinicalTrials.gov registry
- Route
- Injectable study context
- Amount
- Registry summary does not report a public amount
- Frequency
- Registry summary does not report a public schedule
- Duration
- 12 weeks in the registry description
The registry confirms a disease-directed program, but it does not include a completed peer-reviewed outcome result. Tesamorelin, a different GHRH analog, has its own approved HIV lipodystrophy indication; that label does not back claims for CJC-1295 DAC.
Real-world discussion
Community long-acting GHRH protocols
- Purpose
- Sustained GH elevation for recovery and body composition
- Context
- Forums, vendor listings, and protocol blogs
- Route
- Subcutaneous injection
- Amount
- The common community pattern is 2 mg per week, taken as one weekly injection or split into two 1 mg injections.
- Frequency
- Once or twice weekly, reflecting the DAC-extended half-life
- Duration
- Usually 8 to 12 week or longer runs
The DAC conjugate extends half-life to roughly a week, which is why community schedules are weekly rather than daily, and why critics in the community argue it produces GH bleed rather than physiologic pulses. Human outcome data for the marketed uses are absent. That is the reported picture, not advice.
What varies
- Exact name: CJC-1295 DAC, CJC-1295 without DAC, Modified GRF, tesamorelin, and CJC/ipamorelin blends are different comparisons.
- Route: human DAC studies used subcutaneous dosing; online product listings may imply injection without showing sterile injectable quality.
- Amount: study doses are weight-based mcg/kg schedules, while vendor vial sizes and clinic descriptions are separate product facts.
- Frequency: DAC study schedules include single, weekly, and biweekly exposure; no-DAC frequency assumptions belong in a separate discussion.
- Duration: the named studies are short-term endocrine studies, and the registered HIV visceral-obesity program listed 12 weeks.
- Product quality: DAC status, salt form, identity, assay, impurities, aggregates, endotoxin, sterility, concentration, storage, and reconstitution details all matter.
Human data
Human evidence
Direct human evidence for CJC-1295 DAC is confined to endocrine pharmacology. Randomized 2006 studies in healthy adults showed dose-related, days-long GH and IGF-1 elevation after subcutaneous dosing, and a small pulsatility study showed the GH rhythm was preserved rather than flattened. FDA's summary of that record counts 63 exposed subjects, mostly men, many dosed once. The registered HIV visceral-obesity trial offers registry context but no published outcome. Everything the market claims beyond hormone movement, fat loss, muscle, sleep, recovery, anti-aging, GH-deficiency treatment, lacks a controlled human result.
Evidence maturity
CJC-1295 DAC has real human pharmacology and a decade of community use, and still no outcome trials for what it is sold for.
2006 randomized studies showed sustained GH and IGF-1 elevation for days after single injections.
The DAC's weekly schedule made it the convenient GHRH option in community use.
None for recovery, body composition, or anti-aging.
Appears in FDA compounding briefings and is WADA-prohibited.
| Study / evidence area | Population | Design | Product context | Main outcome | Limitations | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teichman et al. healthy-adult endocrine studies | Healthy adults ages 21 to 61 | Randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind ascending-dose studies | Investigational CJC-1295 DAC study material; FDA's review describes naming and salt-form ambiguity | GH rose for multiple days and IGF-1 rose for about 9 to 11 days after single-dose exposure; repeated weekly or biweekly schedules sustained endocrine effects in the study setting. | Healthy-volunteer hormone data do not settle the practical outcome questions people ask about fat loss, muscle gain, recovery, sleep, or long-term safety. | Moderate for endocrine pharmacology; weak for clinical outcomes |
| Ionescu and Frohman GH pulsatility study | 12 healthy adult men | Human endocrine physiology study after one subcutaneous dose | Investigational CJC-1295 DAC physiology context | Mean GH, trough GH, and IGF-1 increased one week after dosing while GH pulsatility persisted. | Very small, male-only study with no clinical outcome endpoints. | Mechanistic human evidence |
| HIV-associated visceral-obesity registry | Adults with HIV-associated visceral obesity | Phase 2 randomized placebo-controlled registry record | Registered disease-development program | The registry confirms that CJC-1295 entered a disease-focused development program with a 12-week treatment period. | This is registry context for a 12-week program, not a completed public efficacy result or body-composition outcome paper. | Registry evidence without published outcome results |
| FDA compounding and safety review | People potentially exposed to compounded or marketed CJC-1295-related substances | FDA PCAC review of CJC-1295-related bulk substances | Compounding, nomination, chemistry, and safety review | FDA sources describe limited clinical data, DAC versus non-DAC naming problems, characterization gaps, and adverse-event concerns including injection-site reactions, headache, flushing or vasodilatory reactions, gastrointestinal symptoms, dizziness, hypotension, transient motor symptoms, and increased heart rate. | FDA review material synthesizes the evidence and product concerns; it is not a long-term clinical outcomes study. | Strong for regulatory and product-quality caution |
Cautions
Safety and unknowns
- The human safety data are small and short. FDA summarized 63 exposed subjects in the human studies, most of them men, and many received only one dose.
- Short-term study reports included injection-site reactions, headache, flushing and other vasodilatory reactions, diarrhea at higher doses, nausea or abdominal pain, dizziness, hypotension, transient involuntary leg muscle contractions with some loss of coordination, and dose-dependent increased heart rate.
- Chronic GH-axis stimulation raises unanswered questions about glucose, edema, cardiovascular risk, pituitary effects, cancer-related caution, endocrine feedback, and long-term IGF-1 exposure.
- FDA sources recount an anecdotal fatal myocardial infarction during a terminated HIV visceral-obesity program. It is not a causality finding, but it makes the absence of completed public safety results more important.
- There is no FDA-approved CJC-1295 DAC product found in the cited sources, so approved labeling, release testing, dosing instructions, and postmarketing safety systems are not available for this molecule.
- Complete growth hormone deficiency is a poor fit for secretagogue logic because a secretagogue depends on a responsive GH axis rather than replacing GH directly.
Product quality
A vial label is only a starting point
Product quality is unusually important for CJC-1295 DAC because the name itself can be ambiguous. FDA sources describe distinct DAC and non-DAC moieties, multiple related bulk substances, inconsistent naming, and characterization problems.
A label that says "CJC-1295" still has to answer the key product-quality issues: DAC or no-DAC, acetate or TFA, free base or blend, sterile or nonsterile, accurately concentrated or only loosely described.
Purity percentages and COA badges are too narrow for an injectable peptide unless the lot also answers identity, assay, impurity, aggregate, endotoxin, sterility, storage, shipping, and reconstitution questions.
DAC status
DAC status changes the duration claim, the human study comparison, and the interpretation of any dosing schedule.
Salt or free-base form
FDA sources describe naming and form confusion across CJC-1295-related substances, which can make a product look more certain than it is.
Identity and assay
The product has to be the named peptide at the stated amount, not a related analog, blend, degraded material, or mislabeled form.
Impurities and aggregates
Injectable peptide impurities and aggregation can affect immunogenicity and tolerability, and a single headline purity number leaves that issue open.
Sterility and endotoxin
A purity result for research-use powder is not the same as finished sterile injectable quality. Endotoxin and sterility testing matter separately from identity.
Reconstitution and concentration
Vial size, diluent volume, concentration, storage, and dose math can change what a person is actually exposed to.
Mechanism
How it is proposed to work
CJC-1295 DAC stimulates the GHRH receptor so the pituitary releases more endogenous growth hormone. Growth hormone then drives downstream IGF-1 production. The DAC modification is meant to keep that upstream signal around longer by binding albumin in circulation.
The published human studies are consistent with prolonged GH-axis activity: GH and IGF-1 stayed elevated for days after subcutaneous dosing, and one physiology study found that GH pulses still occurred during the prolonged signal.
This differs from injecting recombinant growth hormone. CJC-1295 DAC depends on the body's secretory machinery and produces an upstream secretagogue signal.
The same mechanism that drives the peptide's appeal also explains the caution: longer GH/IGF-1 exposure can create endocrine and cardiovascular questions that short healthy-volunteer studies cannot close.
DAC duration is the central mechanistic distinction, so no-DAC CJC-1295 and CJC-1295 DAC are different protocol and safety questions.
CJC-1295 is a tetrasubstituted GHRH(1-29) analog (substitutions at positions 2, 8, 15, and 27) that resists enzymatic degradation. The DAC version adds a maleimidopropionic acid group that covalently links to albumin, extending half-life to roughly a week.
The pharmacologic debate around the DAC is pulse versus bleed: sustained GH and IGF-1 elevation is convenient but non-physiologic compared with the pulsatile pattern of native GHRH signaling.
FAQ
Common questions
Is CJC-1295 DAC the same as CJC-1295 no DAC or Modified GRF?
No. DAC and non-DAC forms are separated because FDA's briefing treats them as different active moieties and warns against identity confusion across CJC-1295 nominations and marketed terms.
Do the healthy-adult GH and IGF-1 studies prove body-composition or anti-aging benefits?
No. The direct human evidence here is endocrine pharmacology in healthy adults. It does not settle long-term safety, disease treatment, body-composition benefit, recovery benefit, or anti-aging benefit.
Is CJC-1295 DAC FDA-approved?
No FDA-approved drug product is found. FDA's CJC-1295 briefing states that none of the reviewed CJC-1295-related substances are components of FDA-approved drugs.
Why is the rule-list risk high?
CJC-1295 appears in restricted growth hormone-releasing factor categories, so eligibility cannot be inferred from peptide marketing or mechanistic claims.
Details
Technical details
Sources
References
- 1.
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.
- 2.
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.
- 3.
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.
- 4.
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.
- 5.
DailyMed. EGRIFTA SV- tesamorelin kit prescribing information 2025.
Accessed 2026-06-09.
Current structured product label source for Egrifta SV indication, limitations of use, warnings, pharmacology, and product identity.