Pinc PeptideThe girly peptide research blog

CJC-1295 · Dose evidence · updated 8 October 2026

CJC-1295 dosage: what studies actually used

The short answer

No dose of CJC-1295 is established for any use, and FDA said in 2024 that no FDA-approved drug contains any form of it1. Published studies gave only the DAC form, injected under the skin, to healthy adults, at doses set by body weight in micrograms per kilogram (µg/kg), and side effects were more common at the two highest single doses, 125 and 250 µg/kg12. A Phase 2 trial in people with HIV was stopped in 2006 after a participant had a heart attack and died, and as of FDA’s 2024 review its data had not been published13. CJC-1295 without DAC, also called Mod GRF 1-29, is a different molecule, and FDA found no study that gave it to people1456. This page reports those doses and is not dosing advice.

Not dosing advice. This page reports doses that studies and approved labels used, with their sources. It does not recommend a dose, and we do not give mixing, injection or unit-conversion instructions. Gray-market vials often do not contain what their label says. How we report doses.

Every dose studied in people

StudyWhoPeopleDose and routeWhat happened
ConjuChem Phase 2 trial (NCT00267527), randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled, stopped early Adults aged 18 to 65 with HIV on a stable antiviral regimen and HIV-associated visceral obesity (excess fat around the abdominal organs), without diabetes – Weekly doses stepped up over 3 weeks (60, 90 and 120 µg/kg, or 60, 120 and 240 µg/kg), or placebo, then 9 more weeks; as described in two online reports cited by FDA
Injection under the skin (EU registry entry) · Planned 12 weeks, plus 6 weeks of follow-up		 The US registry lists an enrollment of 120 and the EU registry a planned 150, while the reports cited by FDA say 192 were randomized137. The EU registry entry gives the route as injection under the skin7. About 2 hours after an 11th weekly dose, one participant had chest discomfort and a heart attack, and died about an hour later; the attending doctor’s most likely explanation was coronary artery disease that had caused no symptoms, with a ruptured plaque that blocked an artery1. The trial was stopped, and FDA wrote in 2024 that its data had not been published and that no further information about the other participants or side effects was available1.
Teichman 2006, trial 1, randomized placebo-controlled, single rising doses Healthy adults aged 21 to 61 42 One dose of 30, 60, 125 or 250 µg/kg, or placebo
Injection under the skin · One injection		 Average growth hormone rose 2- to 10-fold for 6 days or more, and IGF-1, a growth factor that growth hormone raises, rose 1.5- to 3-fold for 9 to 11 days, with larger rises at higher doses2. Adverse events (health problems during a study, whether or not caused by the drug) were reported in 33 of 35 people on the drug (94%) and 2 of 7 on placebo (29%), most often injection-site reactions, and none were serious12.
Teichman 2006, trial 2, randomized placebo-controlled, repeated doses Healthy adults aged 21 to 61 24 30 or 60 µg/kg on days 0 and 14, or 20 or 30 µg/kg on days 0, 7 and 14; in each group of six, one person got placebo
Injection under the skin · 2 or 3 injections over 14 days		 IGF-1 stayed above baseline for up to 28 days2. Everyone who got the drug had injection-site reactions, and flushing affected 40% after lower doses and 100% after higher ones1. Two people had brief dizziness and low blood pressure after their first 30 µg/kg dose, which did not recur, and one had brief involuntary leg muscle contractions with some loss of coordination after the second of two 30 µg/kg doses given 2 weeks apart1.
Ionescu 2006, before-and-after study Healthy men aged 20 to 40 12 One dose of 60 µg/kg (4 men) or 90 µg/kg (8 men)
Injection under the skin · One injection; blood sampled overnight before and 1 week after		 A week after the dose, growth hormone between pulses (the trough) was 7.5 times higher, average growth hormone 46% higher and IGF-1 45% higher, with no significant difference between the two doses and no change in the number or size of pulses8. Heart rate rose with dose, and there were no serious side effects1. A later analysis of blood from 11 of the men found that five blood-protein spots changed after the dose, and it did not discuss side effects19.

Studies, animals and users: kept apart

Doses below are what studies used or what a label says. They are not advice, and gray-market products may not contain what their label says.

In human studies

Published human studies gave only the DAC form. Healthy adults received one under-the-skin dose of 30, 60, 125 or 250 µg/kg, or 2 or 3 doses of 20 to 60 µg/kg given weekly or every 2 weeks; the authors judged 30 and 60 µg/kg best tolerated12. The pulsatility study used one dose of 60 or 90 µg/kg8. The stopped Phase 2 trial in HIV used once-weekly doses escalated over 3 weeks to 120 or 240 µg/kg, according to reports summarized by FDA1. In the published studies of healthy adults, most participants got a single injection and none got more than three12. FDA found no study that gave CJC-1295 without DAC to people, and we found no published human study of either form combined with ipamorelin110.

In animal studies

Rats: single under-the-skin doses of the DAC form (1 µmol/kg, per FDA) gave 4 times the GH output of natural GRF(1-29) over 2 hours, with drug still in the blood beyond 72 hours111. Mice lacking GHRH: 2 µg every 24, 48 or 72 hours for 5 weeks, under the skin in week 1 and into the abdomen after that; only daily dosing fully normalized growth112. Rats given injections into a vein every other day for 14 days (0.25 to 4 mg/kg) and dogs given daily injections under the skin (2 to 18 mg/kg a day for 14 days, or 40 mg/kg a day for 7 days) had bleeding, inflammation and minimal to mild tissue death at the injection sites at every dose, in studies FDA says were published only as abstracts1. Rats (no-DAC form): one 0.1 mg injection into a vein in a drug-testing study; the drug was still detectable at the last sample, 8 hours later, and no effects were measured13.

What users report Anecdotal · not validated · not a recommendation

A 2026 medical review compiled bodybuilding-forum reports: 1 to 2 mg a week under the skin, in 1 or 2 injections, for the DAC form, and 100 to 200 µg per injection, once or twice a day, for the no-DAC form4.

Half-life and how it is taken

Half-life
About 6 to 8 days (with DAC); none found without DAC2Estimated 5.8 to 8.1 days after an under-the-skin injection of CJC-1295 with DAC in healthy adults2. FDA’s review of the same trials gives mean estimates of 5.4 to 9.2 days1, the Ionescu 2006 paper cites 8 days8, and a 2009 paper cites 8 to 10 days9. We found no published half-life for CJC-1295 without DAC110. FDA notes that no study has compared the two forms directly1.
Routes
  • Subcutaneous injection (the only route in the published human studies we found, all of the DAC form)
  • Oral tablets and troches (advertised by some websites per FDA’s 2024 review; no human data found)

CJC-1295 without DAC: a different molecule with no human dose data

FDA’s 2024 review treats CJC-1295 without DAC and CJC-1295 with DAC as distinct substances, with different formulas: C152H252N44O42 without DAC and C165H269N47O46 with it156. The published studies in the table used the DAC form, and the reports FDA cites on the stopped HIV trial name the DAC form too, although neither of the trial’s registry entries says which form it used; the EU entry lists ‘CJC-1295 TFA salt’137.

For the no-DAC form, FDA was not able to identify any study in which it was given to people, or any study establishing whether it is pharmacologically active, meaning whether it has an effect on the body at all1. FDA says the first apparent mention of it in the scientific literature is a 2010 report on a product, seized by Norwegian police and customs in 2009, that did not contain DAC114. The only animal study of it we found, a 2016 drug-testing study, gave rats one injection into a vein and measured no effects13.

What happened at higher and repeated doses

  • All adverse events except short-lived hives at the injection site were more common at the two highest single doses, 125 and 250 µg/kg; loose stools or diarrhea, for example, affected 45% and 100% of those two groups1.
  • Injection-site reactions also tended to be more severe or longer-lasting after higher doses1.
  • IGF-1 stayed raised for at least 2 weeks after the two highest doses, and only 250 µg/kg pushed it above the normal range for age and sex1.
  • The median growth hormone peak came within 1 hour at every dose except 250 µg/kg, where it came at 4 hours1.
  • With repeated injections the drug built up: peak blood levels after the day-14 injection were 29% to 70% higher than after the first, and each later injection gave a higher IGF-1 peak1.
  • There were no consistent changes in blood or urine tests, including blood sugar and liver tests, or in heart tracings (ECGs), in either trial1.

Why gray-market vials make doses unreliable

Finnrick, a service that publishes lab results for peptide samples, lists 333 CJC-1295 tests from 69 vendors between 17 December 2024 and 24 September 202615. Of the latest 200, 124 failed, 75 passed and 1 was incomplete; by our count of the listed results, 43 of 50 ‘DAC’ samples failed, as did 63 of 124 completed ‘No DAC’ samples15. Its pass mark is purity of at least 99.5% with the measured amount within 35% of the label, and the samples include ones that people chose to mail in, so the results are not a random survey15.

Seized products can also hold look-alikes: Danish customs found ‘modified GRF 1-29’ with an extra amino acid attached16. In 2024 FDA concluded that no form of CJC-1295 was well characterized1.

Questions people ask

How much CJC-1295 should I take?

No dose is established for any use, and FDA said in 2024 that no FDA-approved drug contains any form of CJC-12951. Published studies gave healthy adults the DAC form only, with doses set by body weight28. US pharmacies may not compound CJC-1295171819.

What is the dosage for CJC-1295 without DAC?

There is none from research: FDA found no study that gave this form to people and none showing that it is active1. The amounts quoted online come from websites and forum reports, not studies14.

How often was CJC-1295 injected in studies?

In the published studies, healthy adults got one injection, or two or three given a week or two apart2. The stopped HIV trial was different: it planned weekly injections for 12 weeks, and the participant who died had just received an 11th weekly dose13.

What is the highest dose of CJC-1295 tested in people?

The highest published dose was a single injection of 250 µg/kg in healthy adults12. The stopped HIV trial planned weekly doses rising to 240 µg/kg, according to reports cited by FDA1.

Go deeper

Sources

  1. 1FDA Briefing Document, Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee meeting of December 4, 2024: CJC-1295-related bulk drug substances U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 15 Nov 2024. fda.gov
  2. 2Prolonged 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 The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Mar 2006. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  3. 3A Study to Evaluate CJC 1295 in HIV Patients With Visceral Obesity (NCT00267527) ClinicalTrials.gov, 16 Oct 2006. clinicaltrials.gov
  4. 4The emerging landscape of performance-enhancing peptides modulating GH-IGF1 axis: bridging the gap between clinical evidence and patient self-administration Frontiers in Endocrinology, 18 Jun 2026. frontiersin.org
  5. 5CJC-1295 without DAC (Tyr-D-Ala-...-Arg-NH2), PubChem compound summary (CID 56841945) PubChem, U.S. National Library of Medicine, accessed 1 Oct 2026. pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  6. 6CJC 1295 (with DAC), PubChem compound summary (CID 91971820) PubChem, U.S. National Library of Medicine, accessed 1 Oct 2026. pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  7. 7A Multicenter, Randomized, Placebo-controlled, Double-blind Phase 2 Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of CJC-1295 administered for 12 weeks in HIV-Infected Patients with HIV-associated Visceral Obesity (EudraCT 2005-003797-25) EU Clinical Trials Register (European Medicines Agency), 7 Sep 2005. clinicaltrialsregister.eu
  8. 8Pulsatile secretion of growth hormone (GH) persists during continuous stimulation by CJC-1295, a long-acting GH-releasing hormone analog The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Dec 2006. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  9. 9Activation of the GH/IGF-1 axis by CJC-1295, a long-acting GHRH analog, results in serum protein profile changes in normal adult subjects Growth Hormone & IGF Research, Dec 2009. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  10. 10PubMed search: (“CJC-1295” OR CJC1295 OR “CJC 1295” OR “DAC:GRF” OR “modified GRF” OR “mod GRF”) (44 results) National Library of Medicine (PubMed), accessed 8 Oct 2026. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  11. 11Human growth hormone-releasing factor (hGRF)1-29-albumin bioconjugates activate the GRF receptor on the anterior pituitary in rats: identification of CJC-1295 as a long-lasting GRF analog Endocrinology, Jul 2005. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  12. 12Once-daily administration of CJC-1295, a long-acting growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) analog, normalizes growth in the GHRH knockout mouse American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism, Dec 2006. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  13. 13Qualitative identification of growth hormone-releasing hormones in human plasma by means of immunoaffinity purification and LC-HRMS/MS Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, May 2016. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  14. 14Identification of CJC-1295, a growth-hormone-releasing peptide, in an unknown pharmaceutical preparation Drug Testing and Analysis, Nov 2010. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  15. 15CJC-1295: safety testing results and vendor ratings Finnrick, 24 Sep 2026. finnrick.com
  16. 16Glycine-modified growth hormone secretagogues identified in seized doping material Drug Testing and Analysis, Feb 2019. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  17. 17Bulk Drug Substances Nominated for Use in Compounding Under Section 503A of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (categories list) U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 14 May 2026. fda.gov
  18. 18Certain Bulk Drug Substances for Use in Compounding that May Present Significant Safety Risks U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 22 Apr 2026. fda.gov
  19. 19Bulk Drug Substances Nominated for Use in Compounding Under Section 503B of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (categories list) U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 21 Mar 2025. fda.gov

Not medical advice. Talk to a licensed clinician before using any drug. Report an error.