What is CJC-1295 + Ipamorelin?

What is in the blend

Each vial combines two peptides that aim at the same result, growth hormone release from the pituitary, through different receptors.³

CJC-1295 without DAC is the first 29 amino acids of human GHRH with four swaps: D-alanine at position 2, glutamine at 8, alanine at 15 and leucine at 27.¹ FDA's summary says the swaps at 8 and 27 were meant to stop the chain from rearranging and oxidizing, and a 2026 review says the four together make it harder for enzymes to break down.¹³ Ipamorelin's sequence, Aib-His-D-2-Nal-D-Phe-Lys-NH2, includes two non-standard amino acids, aminoisobutyric acid (Aib) and naphthylalanine (Nal).⁴

The name causes real confusion. "CJC-1295" first meant ConjuChem's long-acting compound, which adds a lysine with a linker (the DAC) that binds albumin in the blood; that version had a half-life of 5.8 to 8.1 days in healthy adults.¹⁵ FDA treats the two as different substances and says data on the DAC form cannot be extrapolated to the form without it.¹ It also warns that inconsistent naming is a safety risk, because a person may get a different substance than the one intended, and notes that research sellers do not say whether their CJC-1295 is the free base, acetate or TFA form.¹

Each component has its own profile: What is CJC-1295 No DAC?, What is Ipamorelin? and, for the long-acting form, What is CJC-1295 with DAC?. The combined vial is listed as CJC-1295 + Ipamorelin for sale, holding 10 mg (5 mg + 5 mg) of freeze-dried powder.

What sources report

No clinical trial of CJC-1295 combined with ipamorelin had been published or registered as of October 2026, and a 2026 review found controlled evidence for synergy or body-composition gains still limited.⁹¹⁰³ Evidence that the two pathways add up comes from other peptides: in a 1990 study of 18 healthy men, low doses of GHRP-6 given with GHRH released growth hormone synergistically.⁸ In people, the CJC-1295 data come from small 2006 trials of the DAC form, which raised growth hormone and IGF-1 for days, and the ipamorelin data come from IV studies, including a phase 2 surgery trial of 114 adults that did not beat placebo.⁵⁷ In animals, ipamorelin sped long-bone growth in rats and raised fat pad weight in mice.¹¹¹² Full review with evidence levels: CJC-1295 + Ipamorelin benefits and uses.

Side effects

No study has reported side effects for this blend or for CJC-1295 without DAC.¹⁹¹⁰ The nearest data come from trials of the DAC form in healthy adults and from IV ipamorelin in surgery patients.¹²

CJC-1295 with DAC (small phase 1 trials)

• Injection-site reactions (irritation, redness, hardening, pain or itching): about 70% in the single-dose trial and every treated subject in the multiple-dose trial, worse or longer-lasting at higher doses.¹
• Headache: 63% versus 14% on placebo in the single-dose trial.¹
• Flushing, warmth and brief low blood pressure: 30% after single doses; in the multiple-dose trial, 40% after low doses and 100% after high doses, starting within 30 minutes and clearing in 1 to 2 hours.¹
• Diarrhea or loose stools: 43% of treated subjects, rising with dose.¹
• Brief hives at the injection site: almost 30%, unrelated to dose.¹
• Faster heart rate, rising with dose, in a study of 12 healthy men.¹
• Less common: nausea or abdominal pain (20%), brief dizziness with low blood pressure (2 subjects), and brief involuntary leg contractions with some loss of coordination (1 subject).¹

Ipamorelin by vein (phase 2 trial, 114 adults after bowel surgery)

• Any side effect: 87.5% with ipamorelin versus 94.8% with placebo, so overall rates were similar.⁷
• More frequent with ipamorelin: low potassium (12.5% vs 3.4%), insomnia (10.7% vs 5.2%) and high blood sugar at discharge (14.3% vs 8.6%).²
• Serious adverse events: 17.9% versus 15.5%. Two ipamorelin-treated patients with colon cancer died after leaks at the surgical join, and FDA says it is unclear whether ipamorelin was involved.²
• FDA's adverse event database held two non-serious ipamorelin reports through September 2023, both with compounded products: tearing and headache with a nasal spray, and elbow joint pain after injections combined with sermorelin.²

Warnings

• Unknown long-term safety: FDA found no clinical safety data on the no-DAC form, and the long-term safety of every CJC-1295 form in people is unknown.¹
• FDA's safety page lists serious adverse events with CJC-1295, including increased heart rate and systemic vasodilatory reaction.¹⁴
• In a phase 2 trial of the DAC form in people with HIV lipodystrophy, one participant had a heart attack 2 hours after an 11th weekly dose and died, according to a report FDA cites; the attending doctor blamed underlying coronary disease, and the trial was stopped and never published.¹¹⁵
• Growth hormone risks: FDA notes that raised growth hormone and IGF-1 carry known risks, the ones listed on approved growth hormone labels: tumors, glucose intolerance and diabetes, raised pressure inside the skull, fluid retention, low adrenal or thyroid function, and pancreatitis.¹²
• Immune reactions: FDA flags immunogenicity, possibly higher with injection under the skin, along with clumping and peptide-related impurities.¹²
• Animal findings for the DAC form: repeated daily injections caused bleeding, inflammation and tissue death at the injection site in rats and dogs, and FDA says pituitary overgrowth or tumors with long-term use cannot be ruled out.¹
• Product quality: compounded CJC-1295 and ipamorelin injections were recalled from 2018 to 2025 because sterility could not be assured, and doping labs have found black-market secretagogues with altered structures, such as glycine-extended ipamorelin.¹⁶¹⁷¹⁸
• Who was studied: of 63 people given the DAC form in published studies, 87% were men and 73% received one dose, and there are no safety data in children.¹
• Pregnancy and fertility: FDA found the animal toxicity data on ipamorelin too limited to judge, and notes that ghrelin itself harmed fertilization and embryo development in mice, so ipamorelin may affect reproductive health.²

Dosage information

No dose of CJC-1295 without DAC, ipamorelin or the blend is established for people, and none is FDA-approved.¹² The human doses in the literature come from small studies of the DAC form given under the skin and of ipamorelin given by vein, and FDA found no human pharmacokinetic or effect data for ipamorelin given under the skin.¹² FDA's review lists a wide range of doses quoted online, and a 2026 review stresses that such online regimens are not evidence-based.¹³ Study-by-study figures, with species, route and length: CJC-1295 + Ipamorelin dosage.

Reconstitution and storage

No official preparation method exists: neither peptide has an FDA-approved label or a USP or NF monograph.¹² FDA's 2024 reviews, mostly relaying vendor data, report the following for each substance.

• Solubility: CJC-1295 free base is only slightly soluble in water but dissolves in 1% acetic acid, and FDA questioned whether it could even be made into a 2 mg/mL injection.¹ Ipamorelin acetate dissolves in water at 5 mg/mL, while the free base dissolves at only 0.0032 mg/mL.²
• Powder stability: solid CJC-1295 free base is reported stable for 4 years or more at -20 °C.¹ Freeze-dried ipamorelin keeps about 3 weeks at room temperature but is best stored dry below -18 °C, because moisture greatly reduces the long-term stability of freeze-dried peptides.²
• Solution stability: dissolved ipamorelin is reported stable for 2 to 3 weeks at 4 °C and 3 to 4 months at -20 °C.² For CJC-1295, the only figure is for the acetate in solvent: up to 1 year at -80 °C.¹ No published data cover the two peptides mixed in one vial.
• Fragility: FDA notes that peptides like these are very sensitive to pH, heat, concentration and impurities, which can cause clumping, breakdown and loss of activity.¹

The salt form in the store's vial is not stated, and the free base and acetate behave very differently in water.¹² Because compounded CJC-1295 and ipamorelin injections have been recalled over sterility, aseptic technique matters at every step.¹⁶¹⁷ The procedure is in How to reconstitute a peptide vial, the concentration math in the reconstitution calculator, and storage practice in How to store peptides.

Regulatory status

• FDA approval: none. FDA's 2024 reviews found no approved drug containing any form of either peptide and no USP or NF monograph.¹²
• Pharmacy compounding (503A): FDA proposed keeping both off its list of bulk substances pharmacies may compound.¹² Its advisory committee voted 0 to 13 on CJC-1295 free base (1 to 12 on the acetate) on December 4, 2024, and 0 to 12, with 1 abstention, on each form of ipamorelin on October 29, 2024.¹⁹²⁰ Neither appears in any 503A nomination category on FDA's list updated May 14, 2026.²¹
• FDA safety page: as of April 22, 2026, it lists CJC-1295 and ipamorelin acetate among substances previously in category 2 whose nominations were withdrawn; ipamorelin acetate stays in category 2 for outsourcing facilities (503B), where it was added on September 29, 2023.¹⁴²
• Enforcement: FDA reports Class II recalls of compounded CJC-1295 and ipamorelin injections from 2018 to 2025 for lack of sterility assurance.¹⁶¹⁷ In a December 2024 warning letter to a peptide seller, FDA said "research use only" labels did not stop it from treating the products as drugs for human use; that letter did not name either peptide.²²
• Outside the US: FDA found no approved CJC-1295 product in 12 countries it checked or from the European Medicines Agency, and reported that Australia lists ipamorelin in its Poisons Standard as a performance and image enhancing drug.¹² In an April 2026 advisory, Health Canada listed CJC-1295 and ipamorelin among unauthorized injectable peptide drugs it had seized.²³
• Sport: WADA bans both at all times, CJC-1295 as a GHRH analog and ipamorelin as a growth hormone secretagogue.²⁴
• Development: ConjuChem withdrew the DAC form from clinical trials in 2006 after a phase 2 death, and ipamorelin's development for gut recovery after surgery stopped after its phase 2 trial showed no significant benefit.¹²