CJC-1295 + Ipamorelin: The GH-Releasing Stack - Dosage, Timing, Side Effects

Key takeaways

• CJC-1295 is a long-acting copy of growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH); ipamorelin is a short-acting ghrelin-receptor agonist. Both tell your pituitary to release growth hormone (GH). Neither is growth hormone, and neither has ever been an approved drug.
• The human evidence is thin and old: two 2006 hormone studies of CJC-1295 with DAC in healthy adults (one injection raised GH 2- to 10-fold for six days or more and IGF-1 1.5- to 3-fold for 9 to 11 days), a pharmacokinetic study of ipamorelin in 40 men, and one failed ipamorelin trial in bowel recovery after surgery. There is no trial of the combination for anything, and none of either molecule for body composition, sleep or aging.
• The doses clinics sell (100 to 300 mcg of each, nightly, under the skin) bear little relation to what was studied: CJC-1295 with DAC at roughly 2 to 4 mg once a week, and ipamorelin at roughly 2 mg intravenously twice a day. The nightly 'no-DAC' version has never been tested in a published human study.
• The risks are the risks of raising GH and IGF-1 (fluid retention, joint pain, carpal tunnel symptoms, higher blood sugar), plus the unknowns of a product nobody regulates. CJC-1295's only disease trial was halted in 2006 after a participant died; the cause was never published and the program never resumed.
• Legally, this stack is over. FDA put both peptides in Category 2 in September 2023, its advisory committee voted against ipamorelin (0 yes, 12 no, 1 abstention) in October 2024 and against CJC-1295 (0 yes, 13 no; 1 yes, 12 no for the acetate) in December 2024, and FDA proposes not to add either to the permitted list. No US pharmacy may compound them in October 2026. The GHRH analog a licensed pharmacy can dispense is sermorelin.

CJC-1295 + ipamorelin at a glance

Also called

CJC-1295 DAC, DAC:GRF, CJC-1295 without DAC (modified GRF 1-29), ipamorelin acetate, GHRH plus GHRP stack

Class

Two growth hormone secretagogues sold together: a long-acting GHRH analog (CJC-1295) and a selective ghrelin-receptor (GHS-R1a) agonist (ipamorelin)

Route

Subcutaneous injection, sold as separate vials or a premixed 'blend', usually taken once nightly

FDA status

Neither has ever been FDA-approved. FDA placed both in Category 2 of its 503A bulk-substances list on September 29, 2023 (significant safety risks) and now lists both as nominated but withdrawn; its advisory committee voted against ipamorelin on October 29, 2024 and against CJC-1295 on December 4, 2024, and FDA proposes not to add either to the permitted list. Not legally compoundable as of October 2026.

FDA Category 2 (compounding restricted)

No

Available by prescription (US)

Not compoundable: neither is on the 503A bulks list; both were in Category 2 from 2023 and are now listed as nominated but withdrawn

Best-studied use

Hormone-response studies in healthy adults (CJC-1295, 2006); ipamorelin was studied intravenously for postoperative ileus after bowel surgery and did not beat placebo

Typical monthly cost (telehealth, 2026)

No legally compounded product exists, so there is no legitimate price; the prescribable alternative, sermorelin, runs $150 to $400 a month

What CJC-1295 and ipamorelin are and how they work

"CJC-1295 ipamorelin" is not one drug. It is two peptides with different histories, sold together because they push growth hormone from two directions.

CJC-1295 was developed by ConjuChem, a Montreal company, as DAC:GRF. It starts from the same 29-amino-acid fragment of GHRH that sermorelin is made of, with four amino acids swapped to resist the enzymes that break GHRH down within minutes. The "DAC" (drug affinity complex) is a chemical linker that attaches the peptide to albumin, the main protein in blood, after injection. That gives CJC-1295 a half-life of roughly six to eight days instead of minutes, so a single injection keeps stimulating the pituitary for more than a week (Teichman 2006). The version sold as "CJC-1295 without DAC" or modified GRF (1-29) is the same substituted peptide without the linker. It lasts minutes, not days, and it has never been tested in a published human study under either name.

Ipamorelin was developed by Novo Nordisk in the 1990s. It is a five-amino-acid peptide that acts on the ghrelin receptor (GHS-R1a), the same target as the older growth hormone-releasing peptides GHRP-2 and GHRP-6. What made it interesting was selectivity: in pigs, GHRP-2 and GHRP-6 raised ACTH and cortisol along with GH, while ipamorelin released GH without raising ACTH or cortisol even at doses more than 200 times its effective GH dose, and none of them affected prolactin, thyroid or gonadotropin levels (Raun 1998). In human volunteers, an intravenous infusion produced a single GH pulse peaking about 40 minutes after dosing, with a terminal half-life of about two hours (Gobburu 1999).

The logic of combining them is real physiology. GHRH and ghrelin act through different receptors on the same pituitary cells, and in a study of seven young men, GHRH plus ghrelin released far more GH than either alone (Arvat 2001). That is a single-dose hormone experiment with the natural hormone, not a trial of CJC-1295 plus ipamorelin, and it says nothing about what months of nightly injections do to muscle, fat, sleep or aging.

Two features matter for everything that follows. First, feedback stays intact: rising IGF-1 and somatostatin still suppress the pituitary, which caps the response. Second, CJC-1295 with DAC removes the daily rhythm. GH is normally released in pulses with low troughs between them; a week-long GHRH stimulus raises the troughs 7.5-fold while leaving pulse frequency unchanged (Ionescu 2006). Whether sustained trough elevation is harmless over years is unknown. That is a different exposure from sermorelin, whose effect is gone by morning.

What the evidence actually shows

CJC-1295 and ipamorelin claims, graded by the evidence behind them

Claim	Grade	What the evidence shows	Sources
CJC-1295 with DAC raises GH and IGF-1 in healthy adults	B	Two randomized, placebo-controlled ascending-dose trials (28 and 49 days) in healthy adults aged 21 to 61: one subcutaneous injection raised mean GH 2- to 10-fold for six days or more and IGF-1 1.5- to 3-fold for 9 to 11 days; after repeated doses IGF-1 stayed above baseline for up to 28 days. Half-life 5.8 to 8.1 days. No serious adverse reactions reported.	Teichman 2006
CJC-1295 preserves GH pulsatility	B	In healthy men aged 20 to 40, one week after a single 60 or 90 mcg/kg injection, pulse frequency and size were unchanged while trough GH rose 7.5-fold; mean GH rose 46% and IGF-1 45%. The two doses did not differ.	Ionescu 2006
Ipamorelin releases GH selectively, without cortisol or prolactin	C	Shown in rat pituitary cells, rats and pigs: GH release comparable to GHRP-6 with no rise in ACTH or cortisol even at very high doses. The human pharmacokinetic study measured GH only (single pulse, half-life about 2 hours). Selectivity has not been formally tested in humans at clinic doses.	Raun 1998; Gobburu 1999
Ipamorelin works for a medical condition	B	The only efficacy trial: 117 adults after bowel resection, randomized to intravenous ipamorelin 0.03 mg/kg or placebo twice daily for up to 7 days. Median time to first tolerated meal 25.3 vs 32.6 hours (p = 0.15); no significant difference on any key or secondary endpoint. A larger phase 2 dose-finding trial (320 patients) finished in 2014 and never posted results.	Beck 2014; NCT01280344
The combination builds muscle or burns fat	D	No human trial of the combination exists for any outcome. Neither molecule has a published body-composition trial. The closest data belong to other secretagogues: oral MK-677 added about 1 kg of fat-free mass over a year in older adults with no strength gain, and growth hormone itself shifts about 2 kg of fat to lean mass in healthy elderly people with more side effects.	Nass 2008; Liu 2007
Improves sleep	D	No sleep study of either peptide. The claim is borrowed from GHRH: in healthy volunteers, four nightly 50 mcg intravenous pulses of GHRH increased slow-wave sleep versus placebo, while the same total dose as a continuous infusion did not. A continuous stimulus is what CJC-1295 with DAC provides. See the sermorelin profile.	Marshall 1996
Anti-aging, recovery, injury healing	D	No trial has measured any of these. The 2018 review of secretagogues in humans found few long-term controlled studies, generally good tolerability, concern about blood glucose, and no data on cancer incidence or mortality.	Sigalos 2018
Safe for long-term use	D	The longest controlled exposure to CJC-1295 in the literature is seven weeks. ConjuChem's 12-week phase 2 trial in HIV-associated visceral obesity was halted on July 17, 2006 after a participant died; the registry lists the trial as terminated and no results or cause of death were published. Development did not resume.	Aidsmap 2006; NCT00267527

Three things stand out.

The studies were about hormones, not outcomes. Every positive result in the table is a change in a blood level. Nobody has shown that CJC-1295 or ipamorelin changes strength, fat, sleep quality, recovery time or how people age. The one trial that asked a clinical question, ipamorelin for bowel recovery after surgery, answered no (Beck 2014).

The combination has never been tested. Not once, in any population, for any endpoint. The entire "stack" rests on a single-dose experiment with natural ghrelin and GHRH in seven men (Arvat 2001).

The safety record is a gap, not a reassurance. "No serious adverse reactions" in a seven-week study of a few dozen healthy adults is the floor of what a drug has to show, not evidence of long-term safety. The trial that would have supplied longer data was stopped after a death (Aidsmap 2006), and the company never submitted CJC-1295 for approval.

What you are promised versus what is documented

Marketing pages for the stack list the same benefits as the sermorelin pages, with more confidence: lean muscle, fat loss, deep sleep, faster recovery, better skin, "anti-aging." The evidence sorts those claims into three bins.

• Documented in humans: higher GH and IGF-1 for days after a CJC-1295 with DAC injection; a single short GH pulse after intravenous ipamorelin; selective GH release for ipamorelin in animals.
• Plausible but untested: anything downstream of IGF-1 at adequate doses, including modest body-composition shifts, which other secretagogues and GH itself have produced in trials.
• Not supported: fat loss from ipamorelin, better sleep from CJC-1295, injury healing, longevity, and any benefit at the subcutaneous microgram doses clinics sell.

There is a fourth bin for this stack that sermorelin does not have: claims that are contradicted by the design. "Physiological pulses" is a selling point for GHRH analogs, and the DAC version is engineered to be the opposite of pulsatile. If you want pulses, the molecule that gives them is the short-acting one a pharmacy can dispense.

CJC-1295/ipamorelin vs sermorelin, tesamorelin and MK-677

The practical ranking is the same one we give in the muscle-growth guide: tesamorelin for proven visceral-fat reduction, sermorelin for a prescribable, feedback-preserving GH nudge, and this stack as the option with the weakest evidence and no legal supply. Read the tesamorelin profile for the fat data.

Dosage: what was studied versus what clinics sell

The arithmetic does not favor the clinic protocol. For CJC-1295 with DAC, a nightly 100 to 300 mcg dose adds up to 0.7 to 2.1 mg a week, below the single weekly 2 to 4 mg doses that produced the published hormone changes, and the no-DAC version has no human data at all. For ipamorelin, 100 to 300 mcg under the skin sits at the very bottom of the intravenous range studied, and nobody has published what that dose does by the subcutaneous route. "Both at 200 mcg" is a number that spread from forum to clinic menu, not from a study.

Timing claims

Clinic protocols say bedtime on an empty stomach, which is the right instinct for a short-acting secretagogue: the largest natural GH pulse comes in early sleep, and food and insulin blunt it. The timing is irrelevant for CJC-1295 with DAC, whose effect lasts a week regardless of when it is injected. "Five on, two off" cycling has no study basis for either molecule.

Reading a 'blend' label

Research-grade vials are often labeled as a blend, for example 5 mg of CJC-1295 and 5 mg of ipamorelin in one vial. Reconstituted with 2 mL of bacteriostatic water, that is 2.5 mg/mL of each, so a 200 mcg dose of each is 0.08 mL, or 8 units on a U-100 insulin syringe. We show the arithmetic so you can check a chart someone hands you, not as an endorsement: the vial has no pharmacy label, no verified content and no legal path to human use. The reconstitution calculator is built for prescribed vials with a pharmacy label, and the label always wins.

Side effects and who should not use it

What the trials recorded. The CJC-1295 trials reported no serious adverse reactions and described the lower doses as relatively well tolerated (Teichman 2006); the ipamorelin surgery trial recorded adverse events in 87.5% of the ipamorelin group and 94.8% of the placebo group, which is what you expect in people recovering from bowel resection, with no safety signal attributed to the drug (Beck 2014). The denominators are small and the exposures short.

What the class does. The effects people report with this stack, water retention, flushing, headache, tingling or numbness in the hands, injection-site redness, hunger, are the known effects of raising GH and IGF-1. The best quantified picture comes from growth hormone itself in healthy older adults: more soft-tissue edema, joint pain, carpal tunnel syndrome and gynecomastia, and more new diabetes and impaired fasting glucose (Liu 2007). Secretagogues keep feedback intact and should produce less of this at physiologic doses, but the 2018 review of secretagogue trials still flagged rising blood glucose from reduced insulin sensitivity as the consistent concern, and noted that cancer incidence and mortality with long-term use have never been evaluated (Sigalos 2018).

Cortisol and prolactin. Older ghrelin-receptor agonists raise more than GH: hexarelin and ghrelin itself stimulate prolactin, ACTH and cortisol in humans (Arvat 2001), and the oral agonist MK-677 raised cortisol modestly over a year of daily use (Nass 2008). Ipamorelin was selected precisely because it did not do this in animals (Raun 1998), which is a genuine advantage, but the human confirmation at nightly clinic doses does not exist.

Blood sugar. This is the side effect to take seriously. In the two-year MK-677 trial, fasting glucose rose by about 5 mg/dL and insulin sensitivity fell (Nass 2008). Anyone with prediabetes, diabetes or a family history of either should treat GH secretagogues as a glucose-raising drug class.

Do not use any GH secretagogue, or use one only with a specialist's sign-off, if you have:

• an active cancer or a recent cancer history (GH and IGF-1 are growth signals);
• diabetes, prediabetes or diabetic retinopathy;
• pregnancy or breastfeeding;
• a pituitary disorder, acromegaly or an intracranial mass;
• a known hypersensitivity to GHRH analogs or ghrelin-receptor agonists.

Both peptides are prohibited in competitive sport under the peptide hormones and growth factors category, and anti-doping laboratories test for ipamorelin and the GHRPs in urine.

Legal status in the United States

The legal history is short and consistent. For the general framework, read are peptides legal?; here is the part specific to these two peptides.

• Never approved. Neither CJC-1295 nor ipamorelin has ever been an FDA-approved drug or an ingredient of one, anywhere. ConjuChem's program ended in 2006, Novo Nordisk never took ipamorelin past early trials, and Helsinn's bowel-recovery program went quiet after 2014.
• Category 2 from September 29, 2023. FDA's update to the 503A bulk-substances categories added CJC-1295 and ipamorelin acetate, along with ibutamoren mesylate, BPC-157, AOD-9604, thymosin alpha-1, TB-500 and others, to Category 2, "because FDA has identified significant safety risks with these substances" (FDA categories update 2023). Category 2 substances may not be compounded under the interim policy. FDA's May 14, 2026 update no longer lists either peptide in Category 2; both now appear among nominated-but-withdrawn substances, which ends the safety flag but gives no basis for compounding (FDA categories 2026).
• Reviewed and rejected by the advisory committee. The Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee took up ipamorelin (and ibutamoren, L-theanine and kisspeptin-10) on October 29, 2024, and CJC-1295 (with AOD-9604 and thymosin alpha-1) on December 4, 2024 (APC 2024). FDA's reviewers recommended against every form of CJC-1295 nominated (free base, acetate and the DAC versions) and against ipamorelin. The committee's summary minutes record 0 yes, 12 no and 1 abstention on ipamorelin, and, for CJC-1295, 1 yes and 12 no on the acetate and 0 yes and 13 no on the free base and each of the three DAC forms (FDA PCAC 2024). FDA proposes not to include either substance on the permitted list.
• Not part of the 2026 thaw. The twelve peptides FDA removed from Category 2 in April 2026, and the six its committee recommended in July 2026, do not include CJC-1295 or ipamorelin. Nothing in 2026 made either compoundable; what changed was enforcement.
• Not compoundable as of October 2026. No state-licensed 503A pharmacy and no 503B outsourcing facility may legally prepare either peptide. A prescription does not change that.

What 'combination vials' sold in 2026 actually are

Because no pharmacy can make the product, every "CJC-1295/ipamorelin blend" on the market in 2026 is one of two things. Most are research-chemical vials: peptide synthesized in bulk, filled without pharmaceutical quality control, labeled "for research use only," and sold with dosing guides, reconstitution calculators and bacteriostatic water that show the seller knows exactly how it will be used. FDA's warning letters of March and August 2026 rejected the research label as a defense on precisely that evidence, naming dosing instructions and bundled supplies as proof of intent (ArentFox Schiff 2026). The rest are clinic "stacks" in which a legitimate compounded product (sermorelin or a GLP-1) is bundled with a research vial of ipamorelin or CJC-1295 under one monthly fee. In both cases the ipamorelin has no pharmacist, no label and no legal basis. A clinic that tells you its ipamorelin comes from a licensed pharmacy should be asked which pharmacy and under what authority, because as of October 2026 the honest answer is none.

Cost and the legal alternative

There is no legitimate price for this stack, because there is no legitimate product. Research vials sell for whatever the market bears, and clinic bundles typically price the pair alongside the real prescriptions they come with.

The GHRH analog a licensed pharmacy can dispense is sermorelin: the same GHRH(1-29) backbone that CJC-1295 was built from, without the substitutions and without the albumin linker, with an FDA approval history (Geref, withdrawn in 2008 for commercial reasons), small but real human trials in older adults, and a short overnight pulse that preserves the rhythm the DAC version abolishes. Compounded sermorelin runs about $150 to $400 a month through telehealth in 2026, usually including clinician follow-up, and it comes with a pharmacy label, a beyond-use date and someone accountable for what is in the vial. Our sermorelin profile covers the trials, the dose gap and the monitoring plan; peptide therapy cost has the price detail.

If the goal is visceral fat rather than a general GH nudge, tesamorelin is the GHRH analog with large trials, and it can also be prescribed. Neither is a reason to keep injecting an unlabeled vial.

Bottom line

CJC-1295 and ipamorelin are real molecules with real pharmacology and almost no clinical evidence. Between them they have two short hormone studies in healthy adults, one pharmacokinetic study, one failed surgical trial and one halted trial. Nobody has tested the combination, nobody has tested the nightly microgram doses clinics sell, and the no-DAC version has never been studied in a human being. FDA flagged both as safety risks in 2023, its advisory committee voted against both in 2024, and no US pharmacy may compound them.

A reasonable path for an adult with low IGF-1 and symptoms is a prescribed, monitored GHRH analog, sermorelin or tesamorelin, from a licensed pharmacy, with the hormone measured before and after. An unreasonable path is a research vial bought on the strength of a stack name.

Frequently asked questions

+−What are the common side effects of CJC-1295 DAC?

The published trials in healthy adults reported no serious adverse reactions and described the 30 and 60 mcg/kg doses as relatively well tolerated, but they were short and enrolled fewer than 100 people in total. The side effects users and clinics report, water retention, flushing, headache, tingling in the hands and injection-site reactions, are the known effects of raising growth hormone and IGF-1. Because CJC-1295 with DAC keeps IGF-1 elevated for days after each dose, it removes the natural overnight break in growth hormone exposure that shorter-acting secretagogues preserve. The long-term effects of that sustained elevation have never been studied.

+−Does ipamorelin target belly fat?

No human study has measured fat in people taking ipamorelin. The only human efficacy trial tested it intravenously for bowel recovery after surgery, and it did not beat placebo. The idea that it targets visceral fat is borrowed from tesamorelin, a different molecule (a GHRH analog) that reduced visceral fat by about 15 percent over 26 weeks in large trials of people with HIV-associated abdominal fat. Tesamorelin is FDA-approved and can be prescribed; ipamorelin cannot be compounded.

+−Can I use CJC-1295 ipamorelin and tesamorelin together?

There is no study of that combination, and there is no legal way to do it in the United States: tesamorelin can be prescribed, but CJC-1295 and ipamorelin cannot be compounded by any licensed pharmacy as of October 2026. Pharmacologically, tesamorelin and CJC-1295 act on the same GHRH receptor, so stacking them adds exposure without adding a new mechanism. If a clinician is already prescribing tesamorelin or sermorelin, adding a research-grade ipamorelin vial adds an unlabeled product with no safety data to a monitored prescription.

+−What is the dosing protocol for CJC-1295?

There is no validated protocol. The human studies gave CJC-1295 with DAC as single subcutaneous doses, with 30 and 60 mcg/kg (about 2 to 4 mg for a 70 kg adult) best tolerated, and then weekly or every-two-week doses for up to seven weeks. Clinic charts that circulate online list 100 to 300 mcg nightly of the no-DAC version with ipamorelin, or 1 to 2 mg of the DAC version once or twice a week. The nightly no-DAC protocol has never been tested in a published human study at any dose. We report studied doses so you can judge a claim, not as a recommendation.

+−Can CJC-1295/ipamorelin and GLP-1 be used together?

Clinics market the pair as a way to protect muscle during semaglutide or tirzepatide weight loss. No trial has tested growth hormone secretagogues alongside GLP-1 drugs, and no trial has shown CJC-1295 or ipamorelin preserves lean mass in anyone. The one secretagogue with a two-year body-composition trial, oral MK-677, added about 1 kg of fat-free mass without any gain in strength and raised fasting glucose, which is the wrong direction for a person on a GLP-1. A compounded GLP-1 plus sermorelin is at least a combination a licensed pharmacy can legally dispense.

+−How long does ipamorelin stay in your system?

In the human pharmacokinetic study, ipamorelin had a terminal half-life of about two hours after intravenous infusion, and it produced a single growth hormone pulse that peaked about 40 minutes after dosing and faded back to baseline over the following hours. Anti-doping laboratories test for it and its metabolites in urine, so athletes should assume it is detectable well after the hormonal effect has worn off.

+−Does CJC-1295 work for sleep?

No sleep study of CJC-1295 or ipamorelin exists. The sleep claim comes from GHRH research: injected GHRH increased slow-wave sleep in small studies of healthy men, and the effect was stronger when the hormone was given in pulses than as a continuous infusion. CJC-1295 with DAC is, by design, a continuous stimulus lasting days, which is the pattern that worked least well for sleep in those studies. Sermorelin, a short-acting GHRH analog taken at bedtime, is the closer match to what was studied, and it can be prescribed.

+−Is there an oral CJC-1295 or a pill form of CJC-1295 ipamorelin?

Not one that works. CJC-1295 is a 30-amino-acid peptide and ipamorelin a 5-amino-acid peptide; both are digested like any protein and were studied only by injection or infusion. Capsules and tablets sold as 'oral CJC-1295' or 'ipamorelin pills' are dietary-supplement products with no published absorption or hormone data. If a product claims to raise growth hormone by mouth, the only oral secretagogue with human trial data is MK-677, which is not a peptide and is also not legally compoundable.

+−Does CJC-1295 cause hair loss?

No trial has reported hair outcomes for CJC-1295 or ipamorelin, so there is no evidence either way. Hair shedding is reported anecdotally with many hormone changes, and sustained IGF-1 elevation affects skin and hair follicles in ways that are not well characterized. If you notice shedding on any secretagogue, the practical steps are to stop, check thyroid function, iron and testosterone with a clinician, and not to assume the peptide is innocent or guilty.

+−Can you take sermorelin and ipamorelin together?

Clinics sell 'sermorelin/ipamorelin blends' on the theory that a GHRH analog and a ghrelin-receptor agonist amplify each other, which is true for a single dose of GHRH plus ghrelin in a laboratory study. There is no trial of the blend, and as of October 2026 any product containing ipamorelin is outside what a licensed pharmacy may compound, which means the ipamorelin half of the blend has no legal source. Sermorelin alone can be prescribed and has human trial data; that is the version to ask for.

Sources

1. StudyTeichman SL et al. Prolonged stimulation of growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor I secretion by CJC-1295, a long-acting analog of GH-releasing hormone, in healthy adults. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2006;91:799-805. (2006)
2. StudyIonescu M, Frohman LA. Pulsatile secretion of growth hormone (GH) persists during continuous stimulation by CJC-1295, a long-acting GH-releasing hormone analog. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2006;91:4792-7. (2006)
3. StudyRaun K et al. Ipamorelin, the first selective growth hormone secretagogue. Eur J Endocrinol 1998;139:552-61. (1998)
4. StudyGobburu JV et al. Pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modeling of ipamorelin, a growth hormone releasing peptide, in human volunteers. Pharm Res 1999;16:1412-6. (1999)
5. StudyBeck DE, Sweeney WB, McCarter MD; Ipamorelin 201 Study Group. 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;29:1527-34. (2014)
6. SourceClinicalTrials.gov NCT01280344. Safety and efficacy of ipamorelin compared to placebo for the recovery of gastrointestinal function (Helsinn Therapeutics; phase 2 dose-finding; 320 participants; completed May 2014; no results posted). (2014)
7. StudyArvat E et al. Endocrine activities of ghrelin, a natural growth hormone secretagogue (GHS), in humans: comparison and interactions with hexarelin, a nonnatural peptidyl GHS, and GH-releasing hormone. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2001;86:1169-74. (2001)
8. StudyNass R et al. Effects of an oral ghrelin mimetic on body composition and clinical outcomes in healthy older adults: a randomized trial. Ann Intern Med 2008;149:601-11. (2008)
9. ReviewLiu H et al. Systematic review: the safety and efficacy of growth hormone in the healthy elderly. Ann Intern Med 2007;146:104-15. (2007)
10. ReviewSigalos JT, Pastuszak AW. The safety and efficacy of growth hormone secretagogues. Sex Med Rev 2018;6:45-53. (2018)
11. StudyMarshall L et al. Greater efficacy of episodic than continuous growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) administration in promoting slow-wave sleep (SWS). J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1996;81:1009-13. (1996)
12. NewsAidsmap. Lipodystrophy study halted after patient death (ConjuChem stops its phase II CJC-1295 study on July 17, 2006 after a participant dies at an Argentine site; cause under investigation). July 2006. (2006)
13. SourceClinicalTrials.gov NCT00267527. A multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, phase 2 study of CJC 1295 given for 12 weeks in HIV-infected patients with HIV-associated visceral obesity (ConjuChem; terminated; completion September 2006; no results posted). (2006)
14. RegulatoryFDA. Bulk drug substances nominated for use in compounding under section 503A: notice of updates to categories, September 29, 2023 (CJC-1295, ipamorelin acetate, ibutamoren mesylate and others added to Category 2 for significant safety risks). Copy hosted by the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding. (2023)
15. NewsAlliance for Pharmacy Compounding. PCAC to discuss 503A bulks list substances (ibutamoren mesylate, L-theanine, ipamorelin and kisspeptin-10 on October 29, 2024; AOD-9604, CJC-1295 and thymosin alpha-1 on December 4, 2024). September 2024. (2024)
16. RegulatoryFDA. 2024 meeting materials, Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee (briefing documents, voting questions and summary minutes of the October 29 and December 4, 2024 meetings). (2024)
17. NewsArentFox Schiff. RUO-ined: five peptide vendors learn that research use only is not a legal strategy (FDA warning letters of August 24, 2026). September 18, 2026. (2026)
18. RegulatoryFDA. Bulk drug substances nominated for use in compounding under section 503A: Category 1, 2 and 3 lists and updates (updated May 14, 2026). (2026)