CJC-1295 without DAC Reconstitution Calculator
CJC-1295 is a name that covers two different molecules. This page is about the short-acting one, sold as CJC-1295 without DAC and as modified GRF (1-29): the GHRH(1-29) backbone without the maleimidopropionamide lysine group that anchors the DAC conjugate to albumin. It binds GHRH receptors on pituitary somatotrophs, triggers one pulse of endogenous growth hormone, and clears. It is supplied as a lyophilised powder, so the water you add sets the concentration, which is what this calculator converts. No human study of this molecule exists, and nothing here is a dose.
Curated by Dosavy from published literature and regulator labels. Published 1 September 2026, last reviewed 20 September 2026. No clinician reviews this page.
No established human dose
No human trial has established a dose for CJC-1295 without DAC. There is no evidence-based dose to give, and this page does not give one.
The calculator below converts a vial size and a mixing volume into a concentration. That is arithmetic about the vial, not a recommendation about what to inject.
Enter a target dose above to see the draw.
What the evidence says
No dosing range is published here because there is no human study of this molecule to derive one from. That is the whole reason, and it should not be confused with the reason on the DAC entry. The CJC-1295 literature (two randomised placebo-controlled ascending-dose trials in healthy adults aged 21–61, a GH-pulsatility study in healthy men aged 20–40, a serum-proteomics study) is entirely about the albumin-binding DAC conjugate, and is dosed in mcg/kg besides. The only work touching this molecule's own pharmacology is the rat and in-vitro study that developed the CJC-1295 series, in which hGRF(1-29) served as the short-acting comparator; that is animal-only evidence and, per our sourcing standard, an animal study can never back a human dosing range. Everything below the line is observed market practice: what clinics and content sites list, recorded because a user asking about this compound has usually already bought it, and never because anyone measured an outcome at those numbers.
CJC-1295 without DAC at a glance
- Category
- GH secretagogue
- Half-life
- Not established
- Routes
- Subcutaneous
- Regulatory status
- Research use only
- Also sold as
- CJC-1295 without DAC, CJC-1295 no DAC, CJC-1295 no-DAC, CJC 1295 no DAC, CJC-1295 (no DAC), Mod-GRF (1-29), Mod GRF 1-29, mod GRF (1-29), ModGRF 1-29, modified GRF 1-29, Modified GRF (1-29), CJC-1295, cjc 1295, CJC 1295, cjc1295
Mechanism
A short-acting analogue of growth hormone-releasing hormone, sold both as 'CJC-1295 without DAC' and as modified GRF (1-29). It is the GHRH(1-29) backbone that CJC-1295 is built on, minus the one addition that makes CJC-1295 long-acting: the paper that identified CJC-1295 describes it as a tetrasubstituted form of hGRF(1-29) carrying an added maleimidopropionamide derivative of lysine at the C terminus, and that group is what covalently anchors the peptide to circulating albumin. Take it away and you are left with a GHRH-receptor agonist that behaves like the rest of the GHRH(1-29) family: it binds GHRH receptors on pituitary somatotrophs, triggers a single pulse of endogenous growth hormone release, is cleared, and needs an intact pituitary to do anything at all. Because the release is a pulse rather than a sustained elevation, it is dosed in repeated administrations and is almost always paired with a ghrelin-receptor agonist (ipamorelin, GHRP-2, GHRP-6) that pushes the same somatotrophs through a different pathway. NOTE THE NAME: 'CJC-1295' with no qualifier is sold as both this molecule and the DAC conjugate, which is a different drug with a half-life measured in days. See the entry for CJC-1295 with DAC.
Reconstitution
Sold as a lyophilised powder for reconstitution with bacteriostatic water, and the stated peptide mass is an unverified vendor claim. The identity problem comes before the arithmetic: vials are frequently labelled only 'CJC-1295' with no indication of whether they hold this molecule or the DAC conjugate, and the two are dosed roughly ten-fold apart on schedules that differ by about sevenfold. A vial whose form you cannot confirm cannot be dosed safely by either protocol, and no reconstitution calculation fixes that.
Storage
No approved product and therefore no authoritative storage instruction. Supplied as a lyophilised powder with vendor-assigned handling directions that carry no regulatory weight.
Frequency in practice
Operators list one to three subcutaneous administrations per day, most often one before bed. That regimen exists because the molecule is short-acting, but no published pharmacokinetic study measures its half-life in humans, so this entry records no half-life figure. The widely repeated '~30 minutes' comes from encyclopaedia and vendor pages, not from a PK study, and is not carried here. What IS established is the direction: the entire reason the DAC conjugate was engineered, stated in the papers that developed it, is that unmodified GHRH and hGRF(1-29) have a very short duration of action, and the one approved GHRH analogue (tesamorelin) has a labelled elimination half-life of 8 minutes. Days is a property of the DAC form and of nothing on this page.
Regulatory
Never approved in any jurisdiction, under either of its names, and it has no registered clinical trial of its own: the single trial in the corpus (NCT00267527, phase 2 in HIV patients with visceral obesity, TERMINATED) studied the DAC form. It circulates as a research chemical. Modified GRF (1-29) has been identified by mass spectrometry in powders seized by customs authorities, in that case as a glycine-modified analogue rather than the labelled molecule. GHRH analogues are prohibited at all times in sport, and validated detection methods for them exist in human urine, plasma and blood.
What to know before anything else
NAME COLLISION, AND IT IS AN OVERDOSE HAZARD IN BOTH DIRECTIONS. Vendors sell two different molecules as 'CJC-1295'. This one is listed at 100–300 mcg per administration, up to three times DAILY. The DAC conjugate is listed at 1–2 mg ONCE OR TWICE WEEKLY. Injecting a milligram-scale DAC dose on this daily schedule, or running a DAC vial on this page's protocol, is roughly a ten-fold error. Never dose a vial whose form is not stated on the label, and never carry a figure across from the other entry.
There is no human study of this molecule. Not a trial, not a pharmacokinetic study, not a case series. Every human CJC-1295 result you will find cited (the 2- to 10-fold GH rise, the 5.8–8.1 day half-life, the preserved pulsatility) was measured on the DAC conjugate. Those findings are not evidence about this compound, and no dosing figure here rests on a human outcome anyone measured.
The recorded practice figure is PER ADMINISTRATION, not per day. Operators list one to three administrations daily, so the same 'range' describes a three-fold spread in what actually goes in over 24 hours. Read it with the frequency attached or it is not a dose at all.
Not approved for human use anywhere. It is a research chemical, its identity and purity are unverified, and analogues of it (carrying an extra N-terminal glycine) have been identified in seized doping material alongside similarly modified GHRP-2, GHRP-6 and ipamorelin. What is in the vial is a vendor's claim, nothing more.
Raises IGF-1 by design. The long-term consequences of sustained IGF-1 elevation are not established, and the only approved GHRH analogue (tesamorelin) is contraindicated in active malignancy and in anyone whose hypothalamic-pituitary axis is disrupted. No equivalent contraindication list has ever been written for this molecule, which means it is unwritten, not empty.
It requires an intact pituitary to do anything. It asks the pituitary for growth hormone rather than supplying any, so in pituitary rather than hypothalamic GH deficiency it will not work.
It is essentially never run alone: the market sells it blended with a GHRP, and that combination releases more growth hormone than either agent would alone. The published dosing literature on GH secretagogues covers single agents under controlled conditions; combined protocols are not characterised.
Prohibited at all times in sport, with validated detection methods for GHRH analogues in human urine, plasma and blood.
Reviewed interactions
These are the pairs Dosavy holds reviewed, cited data on. A combination that is not listed here has not been assessed, which is not the same as being safe.
- Cautionwith Ipamorelin
The best-known pairing in this category, and the reason to be careful with it is precisely why it is popular: a GHRH analogue and a ghrelin-receptor agonist release growth hormone through separate pituitary pathways and combine more than additively, so the GH pulse from the pair is larger than the two doses would suggest. This short-acting form is the one the blend is usually built from: both agents clear between doses, which is what makes a single co-timed bedtime injection the point of the protocol. Human evidence for the combination is absent; the supporting data are murine.[1]
Modified GRF (1-29) binds pituitary GHRH receptors; ipamorelin binds GHS-R1a, the ghrelin receptor. Because the two receptors sit on different signalling pathways in the same somatotroph, co-stimulation is synergistic rather than additive.
- Cautionwith GHRP-2
Same GHRH-plus-GHRP synergy as the ipamorelin pairing, with a GHRP-2 that is less selective than ipamorelin and also raises cortisol and prolactin. Combined protocols of this kind are exactly what the published single-agent dosing studies do not cover.[2]
GHRH-receptor activation by modified GRF (1-29) and GHS-R1a activation by GHRP-2 stimulate the same somatotrophs through separate pathways, so the growth hormone response to the combination exceeds the sum of the parts.
- Cautionwith GHRP-6
A GHRH analogue plus a GHRP produces a supra-additive growth hormone discharge. GHRP-6 also drives marked appetite stimulation, so this pairing tends to be run for bulking, which does not make the combined GH exposure any better characterised.[2]
Modified GRF (1-29) acts at the GHRH receptor and GHRP-6 at GHS-R1a; co-stimulation of the two pathways is synergistic.
- Cautionwith MK-677 (Ibutamoren)
MK-677 is an orally active ghrelin-receptor agonist taken daily, so it keeps GHS-R1a engaged around the clock; adding a GHRH analogue on top layers a second pathway onto continuous stimulation of the first. Consider that MK-677 alone already impairs glucose tolerance before adding anything that raises GH further.[2]
Continuous GHS-R1a agonism from daily oral MK-677 plus GHRH-receptor agonism from modified GRF (1-29) stimulate growth hormone release through complementary pathways, raising IGF-1 more than either alone.
- Cautionwith Sermorelin
Close to redundant. Sermorelin is GHRH(1-29)NH2 and this is a substituted GHRH(1-29); both are short-acting agonists of the same receptor, on the same kind of schedule. Running them together adds GHRH-receptor exposure and cost without adding a mechanism, and sermorelin is the one of the pair that has at least been given to adults in a trial.[2]
Both peptides agonise the pituitary GHRH receptor and are cleared quickly, so concurrent use raises receptor occupancy within the same short window rather than extending it.
- Cautionwith Tesamorelin
Both are GHRH analogues hitting the same receptor, so combining them duplicates rather than complements. Tesamorelin is the only one of the two with an approved indication and a real prescribing label. If that is what you are on, adding a research-grade GHRH analogue on top means an uncharacterised total dose against a label that assumed monotherapy.
Tesamorelin and modified GRF (1-29) are both GHRH-receptor agonists; concurrent use raises GHRH-receptor occupancy without engaging a second pathway.
CJC-1295 without DAC questions
Is there an established dose for CJC-1295?
No, and for the no-DAC form the reason is that there is no human study of the molecule at all: not a trial, not a pharmacokinetic study, not a case series. The published CJC-1295 literature (two randomised placebo-controlled ascending-dose trials in healthy adults aged 21 to 61, and a GH-pulsatility study in healthy men aged 20 to 40) is entirely about the albumin-binding DAC conjugate and is dosed in mcg/kg. The only work touching this molecule's own pharmacology is the rat and in-vitro study that developed the CJC-1295 series, in which hGRF(1-29) served as the short-acting comparator. That is animal evidence, and an animal study cannot back a human dosing range.
What is the difference between CJC-1295 with DAC and without DAC?
One chemical group changes the drug. The DAC is a maleimidopropionamide derivative of lysine at the C terminus of hGRF(1-29); it reacts in vivo with the free thiol on Cys34 of serum albumin and covalently anchors the peptide to it. With that group the measured elimination half-life in healthy adults is 5.8 to 8.1 days (PMID 16352683), so the conjugate is injected weekly. Without it, the peptide produces a single growth hormone pulse and clears.
What is CJC-1295's half-life?
For the no-DAC form, nobody has published one. The commonly repeated "about 30 minutes" comes from encyclopaedia and vendor pages rather than a pharmacokinetic study, so Dosavy records no half-life figure for this molecule. The direction is established even though the number is not: the DAC conjugate was engineered precisely because unmodified hGRF(1-29) has a very short duration of action, and the one approved GHRH analogue, tesamorelin, has a labelled elimination half-life of 8 minutes.
Why is the CJC-1295 name collision dangerous?
Because vendors sell both molecules under the bare name "CJC-1295", and the two are listed roughly ten-fold apart in mass on schedules that differ by about sevenfold in frequency: the no-DAC form in micrograms several times a day, the DAC conjugate in milligrams once or twice a week. Those listings are what sellers advertise, not what anyone has measured in a trial, so this page does not reprint the amounts. Neither listing is a recommended dose. Note also that the two are quoted in different units, so a unit slip between them is a thousand-fold error rather than a ten-fold one. A vial whose form is not stated on the label cannot be dosed safely by either protocol, and no reconstitution arithmetic fixes that.
Does reconstitution volume change how much peptide is in a syringe unit?
Yes, entirely. The vial holds a fixed mass; the bacteriostatic water sets the concentration. The arithmetic describes the vial and not a dose: a 5 mg vial mixed with 2 ml gives 2.5 mg/ml, so 0.1 ml on the barrel holds 250 mcg, while the same vial mixed with 5 ml gives 1 mg/ml and that identical 0.1 ml now holds 100 mcg. That gap matters more than usual here because the figures circulating for this compound are in micrograms while the syringe is marked in units of volume. Enter your own vial size and mixing volume above rather than copying a unit count from anywhere else. Note that the stated peptide mass on a research-peptide vial is an unverified vendor claim to begin with.
How is CJC-1295 regulated, and is it detectable in sport?
It has never been approved in any jurisdiction under either of its names and has no registered clinical trial of its own: the single trial in the corpus, NCT00267527, a phase 2 study in HIV patients with visceral obesity, studied the DAC form and was terminated. It circulates as a research chemical, and modified GRF (1-29) has been identified by mass spectrometry in powders seized by customs authorities, in that case as a glycine-modified analogue rather than the labelled molecule. GHRH analogues are prohibited at all times in sport, with validated detection methods in human urine, plasma and blood.
What safety questions about CJC-1295 are open?
Most of them. It raises IGF-1 by design, and the long-term consequences of sustained IGF-1 elevation are not established; the only approved GHRH analogue, tesamorelin, is contraindicated in active malignancy and in anyone whose hypothalamic-pituitary axis is disrupted, and no equivalent contraindication list has ever been written for this molecule: unwritten, not empty. It also requires an intact pituitary to do anything, since it asks the pituitary for growth hormone rather than supplying any, so it will not work in pituitary rather than hypothalamic GH deficiency. There is no approved product and therefore no authoritative storage instruction: vendor handling directions carry no regulatory weight, and what is in the vial is a vendor's claim.
Every number above, and where it came from
2 sources, numbered where they are used. Each one links to the paper or the label itself, not to a summary of it.
- [1]Injectable Peptide Therapy: A Primer for Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Physicians
The American Journal of Sports Medicine · 2026 · Narrative review
- [2]A new era of doping? Use of peptide and peptide-analog drugs in recreational and professional sport and bodybuilding: a critical review
The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness · 2026 · Critical review
The rest of the math
- Reconstitution calculatorVial size and diluent to mg/mL and syringe units, with barrel sizes and IU conversion.
- Vial longevityHow many doses a vial holds and the date it runs out.
- Cost per doseVial price against doses drawn, so two vial sizes can be compared honestly.
- Half-life and decayFirst-order clearance, time to steady state, and what remains at a given hour.
Same class as CJC-1295 without DAC
You worked out the draw. Now log this dose.
A calculator answers once and forgets. Dosavy keeps the schedule you set, the doses you actually took, and the reminder for the next one, with the same evidence labels you see on this page.