Research brief

Ipamorelin and CJC-1295

Also written as Growth hormone secretagogues; CJC-1295 with and without DAC, modified GRF(1-29)

Evidence read from: ClinicalTrials.gov, PubMed, FDA · how we work · Last reviewed 9 August 2026

These two compounds are usually sold together, and the case for them rests on a single move: showing that they raise growth hormone and IGF-1, then treating that as if it were the benefit. It is not. Raising a biomarker demonstrates that a drug engages its target. Whether engaging that target does anything a person would notice is a separate question, and for these two it has never been asked in a published trial.

Marketed for

Muscle gain, fat loss, injury recovery, deeper sleep, anti-aging, bone density, cognition.

Evidence reviewed

9 August 2026, against 17 sources

Human evidence

Graded, for members. See the membership

If you read nothing else

• •Between them, ipamorelin and CJC-1295 have not one published human trial measuring strength, muscle mass, fat mass, injury recovery, sleep or any aging-related outcome. Those are the claims they are sold under.
• •Ipamorelin’s only published human trial was in postoperative ileus, and it missed its primary endpoint. A second, larger trial of 320 people completed in 2014 and its results have never been published anywhere.
• •CJC-1295 does what its pharmacology predicts: it raises growth hormone and IGF-1 and keeps them raised for days. That is the entire finding. Its only trial in an actual patient population was terminated in 2006 and never reported.
• •Two different molecules are sold as CJC-1295. The long-acting one carries a chemical group that binds it to albumin; the one sold as "without DAC" does not have it and is a different drug pharmacokinetically.
• •The ceiling for this whole approach is known. A meta-analysis of 18 randomized trials of growth hormone itself in healthy older adults found about 2 kg of fat lost and 2 kg of lean mass gained, no weight change, no bone benefit, no demonstrated functional gain, and significantly more swelling, joint pain, carpal tunnel syndrome and gynaecomastia. Its conclusion was that growth hormone "cannot be recommended as an antiaging therapy".
• •In 2024 the FDA reviewed both compounds for pharmacy compounding and recommended against permitting either, citing absent evidence of benefit, poor characterization, immunogenicity risk, and for CJC-1295 with DAC, a pituitary genotoxicity signal. That review is still the agency’s last published assessment of either compound. The 2026 loosening of the peptide compounding rules did not reach them.

Five of the sources, and what they say

Open any of them. Each is tagged with the kind of evidence it is, because a randomized trial in people and an experiment in cell culture answer very different questions. This brief was written against 17 sources of this kind.

1. 1.Animal
   Raun K, Hansen BS, Johansen NL, et al. Ipamorelin, the first selective growth hormone secretagogue. Eur J Endocrinol. 1998;139(5):552-561. PMID 9849822. Open source
2. 2.Human, uncontrolled
   Gobburu JV, Agerso H, Jusko WJ, Ynddal L. Pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modeling of ipamorelin, a growth hormone releasing peptide, in human volunteers. Pharm Res. 1999;16(9):1412-1416. PMID 10496658. Forty healthy men across five ascending infusion rates. Open source
3. 3.Human RCT
   Beck DE, Sweeney WB, McCarter MD. Prospective, randomized, controlled, proof-of-concept study of the ghrelin mimetic ipamorelin for the management of postoperative ileus in bowel resection patients. Int J Colorectal Dis. 2014;29(12):1527-1534. PMID 25331030. Primary endpoint missed, p = 0.15. Open source
4. 4.Trial registry
   Phase II dose-finding study of ipamorelin for recovery of gastrointestinal function following bowel resection. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01280344. Enrolment 320, completed May 2014, no results posted, no publication located. Open source
5. 5.Regulatory
   US Food and Drug Administration. Briefing document on ipamorelin, Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee, 2024. Open source

Members read on

The grade and the full review are for members

The findings above are free, and so are the sources. Behind this line is our grade for the human evidence on Ipamorelin and CJC-1295, the full review, what we looked for and could not find, and all 17 sources with the kind of evidence each one is.

The grade is our judgment, and the review is the working behind it: what has actually been run in people, what it measured instead, who ran it, who paid for it, and which results were never published at all. Our findings are above and our sources are open, so nothing here asks you to take the reasoning on trust. What a membership buys is where we land, and why.

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