CJC-1295 / Ipamorelin Blend (CJC/Ipa blend) — what it does, evidence, and safety

What it is

This blend is used by researchers to raise growth hormone output for body composition, sleep, and recovery research — it combines two peptides, CJC-1295 (a GHRH analog, usually the no-DAC form) and ipamorelin (a GHRP), each prompting the pituitary to release growth hormone through a different receptor, which is the rationale for pairing them. Neither component is FDA-approved and there's no brand-name product; each individually has data showing it triggers growth-hormone release, but there are no published trials of the combination itself, so any added benefit over either compound alone hasn't been confirmed in humans.

What the research found

This blend pairs CJC-1295 (a GHRH analog) with ipamorelin (a GHRP) to raise growth hormone. Each compound individually has clinical pharmacology data showing it triggers growth-hormone release, and combining the two classes is described in the literature as producing greater output than either alone. But there are no published controlled trials of the combination itself, so any added benefit over either compound alone has not been confirmed in humans; the uses people pursue come from each component's pharmacology plus user reports.

Status and regulatory position

Not FDA approved. US compounding status differs by component — ipamorelin is on FDA's 503A Category 2 bulk-substances list, while CJC-1295 is not; under the most-restrictive-component rule the blend carries ipamorelin's Category 2 restriction. Both components are listed under WADA's Section S2.2.4 prohibited substances. See component entries for component-specific regulatory detail.

Safety

Both components of this blend are not FDA-approved and are banned in regulated sport (WADA). VialWise is a research and educational reference, not medical advice — consult a licensed professional.

Disclosures

⚠️ For research and educational purposes only. Both components of this blend are not FDA approved; both are listed under the World Anti-Doping Agency's Section S2 prohibited substances and will produce a positive doping test in regulated sport. Information in this entry is informational, not medical advice. Always confirm dose calculations with the in-app calculator and consult appropriate professional guidance before any protocol decisions.

⚠️ Precision matters at low doses. This blend's typical dosing produces draws in the range depending on reconstitution. Both compounds are dosed in micrograms. Small dosing errors that look trivial in absolute terms can be significant in percentage terms when starting doses are small. Always verify draws against the in-app calculator and double-check the unit count on the syringe before injecting.

⚠️ There are no peer-reviewed RCTs of the CJC-1295 + Ipamorelin combination. A PubMed search for the exact phrase combination of these two compounds returns nine results as of July 2026 — all are review articles or analytical/doping-control studies that discuss both peptides in broader contexts. None are RCTs of the combination itself. The blend's combined use is supported by (a) well-characterized complementary mechanisms (GHRH analog + GHRP act on different receptors that both stimulate GH release, producing synergistic GH output that is documented in clinical pharmacology data — see component entries), (b) accumulated researcher experience, and (c) the related single-compound clinical pharmacology literatures, but not by direct RCT-grade evidence of additive or synergistic clinical benefit (body composition, sleep, recovery, etc.) over either compound alone.

⚠️ Most pre-mixed CJC-1295 + Ipamorelin blend products use the no-DAC form of CJC-1295 (Mod GRF 1-29), not the DAC form. This is because the no-DAC form's short half-life produces acute pulsatile GH release, which synergizes coherently with Ipamorelin's acute GH-pulse mechanism. The DAC form's sustained baseline GH elevation makes acute-pulse GHRP synergy less coherent and is therefore uncommon in pre-mixed blend products. Verify which CJC-1295 form is in your blend before dosing — the dosing patterns differ substantially. See [cjc-1295.md](./cjc-1295.md) for the DAC vs no-DAC distinction in detail. A 2026 third-party review of GH-IGF1-axis peptides likewise treats CJC-1295 with DAC and without DAC as pharmacologically distinct agents alongside the GHS class (ipamorelin).[⁶]

Quick reference

Components	CJC-1295 no-DAC (see [cjc-1295.md](./cjc-1295.md)) + Ipamorelin (see [ipamorelin.md](./ipamorelin.md))
Common pre-mixed vial sizes	+ total+ total (1:1 mass ratio is standard; varies by source)
Frequency	Daily, most commonly as a single bedtime injection. Multiple-times-daily protocols (e.g., bedtime + pre/post training) are also reported but less common when using the pre-mixed blend.
Half-life	Component-dependent — see [cjc-1295.md](./cjc-1295.md) (~30 min for the no-DAC form) and [ipamorelin.md](./ipamorelin.md) (~2 hours). The blend itself has no published combined pharmacokinetic data.
Route	Subcutaneous
Onset of action	Acute GH pulse within ~30 minutes of dose; subjective effects (sleep changes, body composition, recovery) typically reported within 1–3 weeks of consistent use

In depth

The CJC-1295 / Ipamorelin blend is a pre-mixed lyophilized peptide product combining a GHRH analog (CJC-1295 no-DAC, also called Mod GRF 1-29) and a selective GHRP (Ipamorelin) in a single vial. It is the most commonly sold GH-secretagogue blend in the research-peptide market and is the canonical "GH peptide stack" referenced in researcher-community discussion of body composition, sleep, and recovery contexts.

The blend rationale. The two components have well-characterized complementary mechanisms that converge on growth hormone release through different receptor pathways:

- CJC-1295 no-DAC binds the GHRH receptor (GHRHR) at pituitary somatotrophs, producing transient pulsatile GH release that mimics native GHRH stimulation. See [cjc-1295.md](./cjc-1295.md) source [1] (Teichman 2006) for the clinical pharmacology of the parent CJC-1295 molecule. - Ipamorelin binds the ghrelin receptor (GHS-R1a) at pituitary somatotrophs, producing transient pulsatile GH release through a distinct intracellular pathway. See [ipamorelin.md](./ipamorelin.md) source [1] (Raun 1998) for the discovery paper. - Combined activation of both receptors on the same somatotrophs produces greater GH release than either compound alone. The mechanism is well-described — see [ipamorelin.md](./ipamorelin.md) source [3] (Bowers 2001) for the foundational GHRH+GHRP synergy literature.

Notable structural feature: no dosing tradeoff problem. Unlike the BPC-157 / TB-500 blend where the two compounds have ~10x different typical dose ranges (forcing a tradeoff between under-dosing TB-500 and over-dosing BPC-157), CJC-1295 no-DAC and Ipamorelin both dose in the same per-administration range. A 1:1 mass-ratio pre-mixed blend therefore produces dosing that satisfies both compounds' single-compound research-community ranges simultaneously. This is a real practical advantage of this blend over the BPC/TB blend.

What the published evidence does — and does not — show. As noted in the disclosure callout above, no peer-reviewed RCT has tested the CJC-1295 + Ipamorelin combination against either compound alone or against placebo for clinical endpoints (body composition, sleep, recovery). The mechanism evidence (combined GHRH + GHRP receptor activation produces greater GH release) is rigorous; the clinical-effect evidence (greater GH release produces better body composition or sleep or recovery in this dose range) is extrapolated from individual-compound clinical pharmacology and from accumulated researcher experience. Six recent (2026) review articles from major sports medicine, orthopedic, endocrinology, and athletic performance journals discuss both peptides as part of the broader GH-secretagogue / peptide therapy landscape — none asserts that the combination has been shown to outperform either compound alone in clinical-endpoint terms.[¹][²][³][⁴][⁶][⁷] The only combination-specific experimental finding identified in this literature is preclinical: one review reports that CJC-1295 + ipamorelin improved maximum tetanic tension in a murine model of glucocorticoid-induced muscle loss, and explicitly notes the evidence is limited to animal studies.[³] That is an animal-model result, not a demonstrated human outcome.

Commercial product format vs simultaneous singles dosing. A "blend" product is a commercial convenience: it pre-combines the two compounds in a single lyophilized vial so the researcher reconstitutes once and draws once. Pharmacologically, this is equivalent to reconstituting each single separately and dosing them at the same time. Researchers who want full control over the CJC and Ipamorelin doses independently — e.g., for asymmetric ratios or different timing of each component — should use the singles ([cjc-1295.md](./cjc-1295.md) and [ipamorelin.md](./ipamorelin.md)) rather than a pre-mixed blend.

Reported side effects

Commonly reported

Combined acute GH pulse. Both components produce acute GH elevation; the combined effect produces a sharper and larger pulse than either alone. The most commonly reported acute side effect is transient flushing in the minutes after injection, related to the GH pulse. This is typically self-limited and resolves within ~30 minutes.
Hunger pulse. Ipamorelin's on-mechanism effect of acute hunger stimulation (~30–60 min post-dose, via ghrelin receptor activation) is preserved in the blend. Bedtime dosing may attenuate the subjective hunger experience because the researcher is asleep during the peak.
Sleep effects. Bedtime dosing of the blend amplifies the natural sleep-onset GH pulse and is most commonly associated with subjective sleep improvement.
Combined sustained-elevation concerns. Even with the no-DAC form (which produces transient pulses, not sustained elevation), repeated daily dosing over multi-week cycles produces some sustained IGF-1 elevation. The theoretical concerns about long-term GH/IGF-1 elevation (insulin resistance, IGF-1-mediated theoretical cancer concerns, theoretical CV concerns) apply with the blend; see [cjc-1295.md](./cjc-1295.md) Side Effects section for detail.

Contraindications and warnings

Active malignancy or undiagnosed cancer concern — theoretical contraindication based on IGF-1 elevation. Class consideration for any GH-elevating intervention.

Diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance — caution due to GH's counter-regulatory effects on insulin sensitivity

Pregnancy and lactation: no data; default to contraindicated — applies to both components individually and to the blend.

Pediatric use: no data — should not be used in researchers under 18; GH-elevating interventions in children are heavily regulated.

WADA-banned in regulated sport. Both components are listed under WADA Section S2 (Peptide Hormones, Growth Factors, Related Substances and Mimetics) and will produce a positive doping test. Researchers competing in any WADA-tested sport, or in regulated equine racing, will test positive.[⁵] Recent third-party reviews likewise group CJC-1295 and ipamorelin as investigational agents subject to widespread anti-doping restrictions.[⁷]

US compounding restrictions — status differs by component. Ipamorelin is on FDA's 503A Category 2 bulk-substances list (2023 action, halting legal 503A compounding pending review). CJC-1295 was subsequently removed from Category 2 and was not among the seven substances FDA's Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee took up at its July 23–24, 2026 meeting, which has since taken place (that agenda was BPC-157, KPV, TB-500 and MOTS-c on July 23; Emideltide/DSIP, Epitalon and Semax on July 24). That meeting therefore says nothing about CJC-1295 either way — it was never on the agenda and no committee vote was taken on it.. Under the blend's most-restrictive-component rule, treat the blend as carrying ipamorelin's Category 2 restriction. See [cjc-1295.md](./cjc-1295.md) and [ipamorelin.md](./ipamorelin.md) for component-specific detail.

Key terms

Peptide: A short chain of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Many compounds in this library are peptides.
Growth hormone secretagogue: A compound that signals the body to release its own growth hormone, rather than supplying growth hormone directly.
Blend: a single product combining two or more compounds.
Subcutaneous: An injection into the fatty layer just under the skin, rather than into a muscle or vein.
WADA Prohibited List: The list of substances banned in regulated sport by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Sources

Related entries

BPC-157 / TB-500 Blend — discussed together in this entry's stacks section
Tesamorelin — discussed together in this entry's stacks section
CJC-1295 — same mechanism class
GHRP-2 — same mechanism class
GHRP-6 — same mechanism class
Hexarelin — same mechanism class