CJC-1295 is an unapproved long-acting GHRH analog with a WADA-prohibited, research-only status.

System status: what CJC-1295 is, and where it stands

CJC-1295 is a synthetic long-acting analog of growth-hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH). It is built on the first 29 residues of human GH-releasing factor, hGRF(1-29), with four protease-resistant amino-acid substitutions, and in its DAC form it binds covalently to serum albumin for a multi-day plasma half-life ^[1]. It is not approved by the FDA or any major regulator for human use, and it is prohibited at all times in sport under Section S2 of the WADA Prohibited List. This page reads that status plainly.

Four readouts frame everything below. FDA approval: none — CJC-1295 was reviewed at the 2024 FDA Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee and not recommended for the 503A compounding bulks list ^[10]. WADA Section S2: prohibited. Human pharmacokinetic data: limited to a small set of early-phase studies ^[1][2][3]. DAC half-life: an estimated 5.8 to 8.1 days in healthy adults ^[1]. The rest of the site expands each of these as its own instrument panel, and the short version of the most-asked one — is CJC-1295 FDA approved — is no.

The single most-conflated point in the literature is the difference between the two variants. The DAC ("Drug Affinity Complex") variant carries an albumin-binding handle and persists for days; the no-DAC form, marketed under the CJC-1295 DAC vs no-DAC label, is short-acting and is the molecule properly called Modified GRF (1-29) ^[1][11]. Treating them as the same compound is the most common error in community discussion, so this site keeps the two channels separate throughout.

What the molecule does is well characterized at the receptor level. In published human research, a single subcutaneous dose raised mean growth hormone several-fold for days and elevated IGF-1 for more than a week, while leaving the natural pulsatile rhythm of GH secretion intact ^[1][3]. Those are the established findings. The open questions — long-term safety, efficacy in healthy adults, the discontinued clinical program — are surfaced here just as plainly. This is a digest of the published human research, not a protocol.

CJC-1295 as a long-acting GHRH analog

A GHRH analog is a molecule engineered to mimic growth-hormone-releasing hormone — the hypothalamic signal that tells the pituitary to make and release growth hormone. CJC-1295 binds the GHRH receptor on pituitary somatotrophs, activating the Gs/cAMP/PKA cascade that drives GH synthesis and pulsatile release; the released GH then raises hepatic IGF-1 ^[1][2].

Native GHRH is cleared within minutes, largely by the enzyme dipeptidylpeptidase-IV (DPP-IV). CJC-1295's four substitutions — D-Ala at position 2, Gln at 8, Ala at 15, Leu at 27 — block that cleavage and stabilize the molecule's active helix ^[1]. In the DAC variant, a maleimidopropionyl linker then bonds the peptide to circulating albumin, extending its residence in plasma toward that of albumin itself ^[2]. The result is a GHRH analog that, in the DAC form, can act for days from a single dose.

CJC-1295 sits in the same class as the approved analogs sermorelin and tesamorelin, but it is not approved itself. A 2025 review in Nature Reviews Endocrinology surveys the pharmacology of GHRH and its synthetic analogs as a group, situating long-acting designs like CJC-1295 within the broader receptor biology ^[12].

CJC-1295 as a GHRH-analog peptide

CJC-1295 is a peptide — a chain of 29 amino acids based on the active fragment of human GHRH — not a small-molecule drug and not a steroid. The DAC-variant peptide has a molar mass of roughly 3,367.9 Da before albumin conjugation; after the DAC handle bonds to albumin, the effective circulating species is the much larger peptide-albumin complex, near 66 kDa ^[1][2]. Registry sources (CAS 863288-34-0) describe the DAC variant, and a human should confirm the exact molecular formula at sign-off, since chemical registries disagree on it.

As a peptide, CJC-1295 has negligible oral bioavailability; the published studies administered it by subcutaneous injection ^[1][3]. Its identity has been confirmed analytically: high-resolution LC-MS/MS positively identified CJC-1295 as the active ingredient in an unlabeled "GHRH" preparation seized in an anti-doping context ^[6]. The compound is real, well-defined, and well-detected — what it is not is approved.

What this site is, and what it is not

Legal CJC-1295 is an independent editorial project. It reads the peer-reviewed and regulatory record on CJC-1295 and renders it as a status console: each finding gets a citation, each gap gets a flag. It is not a clinic, it sells nothing, and it offers no medical advice or dosing guidance.

The published human evidence is genuinely thin — a handful of early pharmacokinetic studies in healthy volunteers and one discontinued Phase 2 program ^[1][3][7]. Most "protocols" circulating online are not derived from controlled human trials. Where the evidence is solid, this site states it cleanly; where it is absent, the panel reads amber. Begin with what CJC-1295 is above, then move to the doses used in the research, the detection and anti-doping status, or the full reference list.