What It Is
CJC-1295 DAC is a synthetic, long-acting analog of growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH), the hypothalamic signal that tells the pituitary gland to release growth hormone. DAC stands for Drug Affinity Complex, a modification that lets the peptide bind covalently to albumin, extending how long it circulates compared with unmodified GHRH fragments.[2]
FDA compounding-review documents group several related substances under the CJC-1295 name, including free base, acetate, and DAC salt forms, and specifically flag that naming across this family has been inconsistent in submitted records, so the exact form under discussion in any source matters.[10]
How It Works
Like natural GHRH, CJC-1295 DAC is proposed to act on pituitary GHRH receptors, stimulating growth hormone release and, downstream, IGF-1. This axis is normally pulsatile, rising and falling throughout the day.[6]
The albumin-binding DAC modification sets this version apart: in a placebo-controlled trial in healthy adults, a single injection raised mean growth hormone for at least six days and IGF-1 for nine to eleven days, with an estimated half-life of 5.8 to 8.1 days.[1] That multi-day duration is the central distinction from the "no-DAC" version, which clears much faster.
What the Research Shows
Human evidence comes from a small number of controlled trials in healthy adults, showing dose-dependent, sustained increases in growth hormone and IGF-1, with pulsatile secretion preserved during weeks of continuous stimulation.[3] Preclinical work, including once-daily dosing that normalized growth in GHRH-knockout mice, supports the mechanism.[4]
An FDA review found no data establishing clinical effectiveness for growth hormone deficiency or any other disease, noting that available trials involved only healthy volunteers, not patients.[10] Claims about muscle gain, fat loss, recovery, or anti-aging are extrapolations from biomarker data, not proven outcomes.
Safety & Side Effects
No product containing CJC-1295 DAC has completed a standard drug-approval safety review, so there is no FDA-reviewed label describing its full adverse-event profile. The available clinical trial reported no serious adverse reactions, but FDA's broader review of clinical summaries described injection-site reactions, headache, diarrhea, flushing, dizziness, hypotension, systemic vasodilatory reactions, and increased heart rate, plus immunogenicity and impurity concerns for compounded material.[10][8]
FDA's review also discussed an unpublished HIV-lipodystrophy trial in which a participant died of a heart attack, attributed by the treating physician to pre-existing coronary disease; the case underscores why cardiovascular history and monitoring matter, and why long-term human safety data remain thin.[10]
Regulatory Status
CJC-1295 DAC is not FDA-approved, and no authorized products were identified in the United States or European Union.[10] A 2024 FDA Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee review recommended against adding CJC-1295-related substances to the compoundable bulk-drug list, and a related FDA safety page lists it among substances posing significant compounding risk.[8][11]
Growth hormone-releasing factors, including CJC-1295, appear on WADA's prohibited list, making use a doping violation regardless of research framing.[15] Tesamorelin, a related but distinct drug, is FDA-approved for reducing excess abdominal fat in HIV-associated lipodystrophy; that approval does not extend to CJC-1295 DAC.
DAC vs. No-DAC: Why the Difference Matters
The DAC modification is designed to bind albumin and keep the peptide circulating for days, which is why the pivotal trial detected elevated growth hormone and IGF-1 for six to eleven days after a single injection.[1] The no-DAC version, often called Modified GRF (1-29), lacks that tail and is expected to clear much faster, resembling the short-acting GHRH fragments studied decades earlier.
This is not a minor detail: FDA reviewers found that clinical references submitted for CJC-1295 often described the DAC form even when accompanying documentation pointed to a different substance, risking that a researcher could receive a different compound than intended.[10] Evidence generated with the DAC form should not be assumed to apply to the no-DAC version.