CJC-1295 No DAC (Modified GRF 1-29)

The tetrasubstituted GRF(1-29) analog sold as CJC-1295 no DAC or Mod GRF 1-29: a stabilized GHRH fragment without the albumin-binding linker of CJC-1295 DAC, with no human studies of its own and no approval anywhere.

Also referenced as: Mod GRF 1-29, Modified GRF 1-29, CJC-1295 without DAC, CJC-1295 no DAC

Also appears in: Performance

What is CJC-1295 No DAC (Modified GRF 1-29)?

CJC-1295 no DAC is a synthetic 29-residue amidated peptide: the first 29 amino acids of human growth hormone-releasing hormone (the fragment sold on its own as sermorelin) with four substitutions, D-alanine at position 2, glutamine for asparagine at position 8, alanine for glycine at position 15 and leucine for methionine at position 27 (sequence Tyr-D-Ala-Asp-Ala-Ile-Phe-Thr-Gln-Ser-Tyr-Arg-Lys-Val-Leu-Ala-Gln-Leu-Ser-Ala-Arg-Lys-Leu-Leu-Gln-Asp-Ile-Leu-Ser-Arg-NH2, formula C152H252N44O42). The research market calls it “CJC-1295 without DAC,” “CJC-1295 no DAC” or “Mod GRF 1-29,” and the 2005 ConjuChem paper that coined the CJC-1295 name described its compound as a tetrasubstituted form of hGRF(1-29). Each substitution was worked out in the 1980s and 1990s to protect the native fragment from a specific route of inactivation, and together they are designed to make a growth hormone-releasing hormone analog that survives longer in plasma than sermorelin, though that has never been measured for the assembled peptide, which in any case lacks the week-long action of the albumin-bound form.

The compound ConjuChem actually developed and named CJC-1295 is a different molecule: the same tetrasubstituted peptide extended by a thirtieth residue, a lysine carrying an N-epsilon-3-maleimidopropionamide group, the “Drug Affinity Complex” that reacts covalently with cysteine 34 of circulating albumin after injection and gives the conjugate a half-life of about a week. That compound is CJC-1295, and every human study published under the CJC-1295 name used it. The DAC-free peptide sold under the CJC-1295 name has no published pharmacology or human data of its own; it is marketed on the premise that a short-acting analog pulses growth hormone more like the native hormone.

How it works

The peptide binds the growth hormone-releasing hormone receptor on pituitary somatotrophs, as GRF(1-29) does, and the four substitutions address the reasons the native fragment disappears from plasma within minutes.

• GRF(1-29) carries the full activity, and dipeptidyl peptidase-IV inactivates it. The first 29 residues of the hormone carry its full growth hormone-releasing activity, and in human plasma the peptide is cleaved between alanine 2 and aspartate 3, leaving a fragment with less than one-thousandth of the parent’s activity (Frohman et al., Journal of Clinical Investigation, 1986, 78(4):906–913).
• D-alanine at position 2 blocks that cleavage. A D-amino acid at the scissile bond prevents dipeptidyl peptidase-IV from removing the first two residues (Lance et al., Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 1984, 119(1):265–272).
• Glutamine 8 and leucine 27 protect the peptide in solution. Asparagine 8 deamidates to aspartate isomers in aqueous solution with a large loss of potency, which glutamine prevents (Friedman et al., International Journal of Peptide and Protein Research, 1991, 37(1):14–20), and methionine 27 oxidizes to the sulfoxide, which leucine prevents (Campbell et al., Peptides, 1994, 15(3):489–495).
• Alanine 15 raises receptor affinity. Replacing glycine 15 with alanine stabilizes the peptide’s amphiphilic alpha-helix and increases binding to the GRF receptor (Campbell et al., Peptides, 1991, 12(3):569–574).
• The DAC is what this peptide lacks. The CJC-1295 that ConjuChem developed adds a thirtieth residue, a lysine carrying a maleimidopropionamide group that binds covalently to albumin after injection and keeps the conjugate in plasma for days (Jetté et al., Endocrinology, 2005, 146(7):3052–3058). Without it the DAC-free form is cleared like other small peptides, and its human half-life has not been measured.

Research status

Preclinical. No published study has tested the DAC-free tetrasubstituted GRF(1-29) as a distinct compound in animals or in vitro. The FDA’s December 2024 review of CJC-1295-related substances searched the literature and found no study establishing whether CJC-1295 (free base) or its acetate is pharmacologically active, in contrast to the DAC form, for which rodent pharmacology exists. The activity of the DAC-free peptide is therefore inferred from the component substitutions characterized in the 1984 to 1994 analog literature above and from the DAC conjugate that carries the same core. The one controlled growth study used the DAC form: once-daily CJC-1295 for five weeks normalized body weight and length in growth hormone-releasing hormone knockout mice, with pituitary growth hormone mRNA and somatotroph proliferation increased, while dosing every 48 or 72 hours improved growth over placebo without fully normalizing it (Alba et al., American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism, 2006, 291(6):E1290–E1294).

Human data exist only for the DAC form. In two randomized, placebo-controlled, ascending-dose trials in healthy adults, a single subcutaneous injection of CJC-1295 raised mean plasma growth hormone two- to tenfold for six days or more and IGF-I 1.5- to threefold for 9 to 11 days, with an estimated half-life of 5.8 to 8.1 days (Teichman et al., Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2006, 91(3):799–805). Overnight sampling one week after a single injection showed unchanged pulse frequency and amplitude with a 7.5-fold rise in trough growth hormone (Ionescu & Frohman, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2006, 91(12):4792–4797), and a proteomic study of serum from 11 men identified apolipoprotein A1 and transthyretin isoforms that changed after treatment (Sackmann-Sala et al., Growth Hormone & IGF Research, 2009, 19(6):471–477). All three studies describe a compound carrying the maleimidopropionamide lysine and attribute its week-long action to albumin binding; none of their findings describes the peptide sold as CJC-1295 no DAC.

The only disease trial was of the DAC form and ended in termination. ConjuChem registered a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2 study of once-weekly CJC 1295 given for 12 weeks in HIV-associated visceral obesity (NCT00267527), started in December 2005. In July 2006 a participant who had received the eleventh weekly dose reported chest discomfort about two hours later, had an acute myocardial infarction confirmed by electrocardiogram and died roughly an hour after that; the attending physician attributed the event to asymptomatic coronary artery disease with plaque rupture and occlusion. The trial, which the account relied on by the FDA records as having enrolled 192 patients, was terminated, its data were never published, and ConjuChem did not resume clinical development. As of November 3, 2026 ClinicalTrials.gov lists no other study of CJC-1295 in any form and no study under the names Mod GRF 1-29, Modified GRF (1-29) or tetrasubstituted GRF(1-29).

Where the DAC-free peptide does appear in the literature is forensic. The Norwegian doping-control laboratory sequenced an unlabeled preparation seized by Norwegian police and customs in 2009 and found a 29-residue C-terminally amidated peptide consistent with CJC-1295 (Henninge et al., Drug Testing and Analysis, 2010, 2(11-12):647–650); the mass and formula reported match the DAC-free form, which the FDA review describes as the first reference to CJC-1295 without DAC in the literature. Powders seized by Danish customs were identified against reference standards as analogs of modified GRF(1-29), GHRP-2, GHRP-6 and ipamorelin, each carrying an extra glycine at the amino terminus, an apparent attempt to evade existing assays (Gajda et al., Drug Testing and Analysis, 2019, 11(2):350–354). Anti-doping chemists have since mapped the in vitro metabolites of sermorelin, tesamorelin, CJC-1295 and CJC-1295 with DAC and built a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method reaching the 1 nanogram per milliliter limit WADA requires (Memdouh et al., Drug Testing and Analysis, 2021, 13(11-12):1871–1887).

The lineage that did reach approval is a different molecule. Tesamorelin (TH9507) stabilizes the full 44-residue hormone with a trans-3-hexenoyl group on tyrosine 1 rather than by internal substitutions, resists dipeptidyl aminopeptidase-IV, and has an elimination half-life of 21 to 45 minutes in dogs (Ferdinandi et al., Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology, 2007, 100(1):49–58); it is approved in the United States for HIV-associated abdominal fat accumulation. No tetrasubstituted GRF(1-29) has been taken into clinical development by anyone.

Common dosage forms

• Research market. Lyophilized powder in vials, most commonly labeled 2 mg, 5 mg or 10 mg under the names “CJC-1295 no DAC,” “CJC-1295 without DAC” or “Mod GRF 1-29.” Listings rarely state whether the content is the free base, the acetate or the trifluoroacetate salt, and seized material has included glycine-extended variants of the labeled peptide.
• Multi-ingredient research vials. The DAC-free peptide is the usual CJC-1295 component of blended powders sold with ipamorelin, GHRP-2, GHRP-6, hexarelin, tesamorelin or HGH Fragment 176-191, with each component’s milligram content printed on the label.
• Compounded presentations. US outsourcing facilities have reported to the FDA a multiple-ingredient injection powder for solution containing CJC-1295 6 mg/mL with ipamorelin 15 mg/mL, and clinics have offered CJC-1295/ipamorelin injections and troches; the FDA review notes that these reports and listings generally do not say whether the CJC-1295 is the DAC or the DAC-free form, or which salt.
• No pharmaceutical presentation. There is no approved product, pen, tablet, capsule or spray containing this peptide in any country.

Key considerations

• Regulatory status. The Research Market status reflects the absence of any US approval, any registered clinical trial and any development program for the DAC-free peptide. Two nominations of “CJC-1295” for the 503A bulk drug substances list were withdrawn without making clear which of five distinct substances they meant, the FDA evaluated all five on its own initiative, and the advisory committee voted overwhelmingly against every form in December 2024; no final rule has followed.
• Every human number attached to this peptide belongs to a different molecule. The growth hormone and IGF-I elevations, the half-life and the preserved pulsatility come from trials of CJC-1295 with DAC, and the FDA’s review found no study showing the free base is pharmacologically active. The only supporting literature is the 1984 to 1994 work on the individual substitutions; nothing has been published on the assembled peptide.
• Safety data are absent rather than reassuring. The FDA’s adverse-event database searches retrieved no assessable case for any CJC-1295 form, which reflects the lack of surveillance of research-market use rather than evidence of safety. For the DAC form the agency flagged injection-site necrosis in rats and dogs, DNA-damage signals in mouse pituitary cells, the theoretical risk of somatotroph hyperplasia under chronic stimulation and the 2006 trial death; whether any of these apply to the DAC-free peptide is unknown. Immunogenicity of injected, aggregation-prone peptides of uncertain purity was the agency’s central concern for both forms.
• The name is the hazard. The FDA counted at least five distinct substances and nine names in circulation under “CJC-1295,” and catalog listings, clinics and analytical papers interchange the DAC and DAC-free forms. The two differ by a single reactive residue, but that residue is the difference between a peptide whose duration has never been measured and one bound to albumin for a week; the two are distinguishable only by mass or sequence analysis, not by label.
• Prohibited in sport. The World Anti-Doping Agency’s 2026 Prohibited List names CJC-1295 alongside CJC-1293, sermorelin and tesamorelin as examples of growth hormone-releasing hormone analogs under S2, prohibited at all times, and validated assays exist for both the DAC and DAC-free peptides.