Sermorelin and BPC-157 are compared online as if they were two options for the same purpose, usually recovery. Their records are not two of a kind. Sermorelin is a fragment of a human hormone that FDA approved twice, as a diagnostic and a treatment, and that the manufacturer later stopped selling; its dosage was set in a trial. BPC-157 has never been approved anywhere and has three small human reports between it and the animal literature. This page sets the two records side by side — what each source states, the regulator's position, and what the circulating figures look like on a syringe (sources opened 2026-10-22). It reports figures; it suggests none.
Each compound has its own page with the full record: sermorelin dosage and BPC-157 dosage. Vial arithmetic for any volume is in the calculators for sermorelin and BPC-157.
Side by side
| Sermorelin | BPC-157 | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | GHRH(1-29), the first 29 residues of growth-hormone-releasing hormone | Synthetic 15-residue peptide, "body protection compound" |
| Molecular weight (PubChem) | 3,357.9 g/mol | 1,419.5 g/mol |
| Target | GHRH receptor on the pituitary | No receptor established in the sources read |
| Regulatory history | Geref approved 1990 (diagnostic) and 1997 (treatment); discontinued, not for safety or effectiveness | Never approved; no label anywhere |
| Human dosing source | Thorner 1996: 30 mcg/kg SC at bedtime, 110 children, up to 1 year | Three studies, 30 people, routes into knee, bladder and vein; very low certainty |
| ClinicalTrials.gov, 2026-10-22 | 42 studies | 4 studies |
| Circulating figure (this site, 2026-09-18) | 200 to 500 mcg SC once daily at bedtime | 250 to 500 mcg SC once or twice daily |
| Research vials | 5 mg, 10 mg | 5 mg, 10 mg |
The rows that separate them are the regulatory history and the dosing source. Sermorelin's figure was set by its sponsor in a multicentre trial and reviewed by FDA; it is a paediatric, per-kilogram figure that the adult clinic convention does not follow. BPC-157's figures have no reviewed source at all.
What each record actually holds
Sermorelin. The 1996 trial behind Geref treated 110 previously untreated, prepubertal children with growth hormone deficiency at 30 mcg/kg once daily at bedtime; 86 were evaluable, height velocity roughly doubled at six months, and 74% were judged good responders. The diagnostic product was a single 0.05 mg ampule for a stimulation test. Both Geref products are listed as discontinued, and FDA's Federal Register determination — recorded on each product line in Drugs@FDA — is that they were not withdrawn for reasons of safety or effectiveness, the finding that keeps sermorelin eligible for compounding, as this site's sermorelin page records. Scaled to a 70 kg adult, the trial's per-kilogram figure would be 2.1 mg a day, four to ten times the adult clinic range; that gap shows the clinic figures were not derived from the trial.
BPC-157. The 2026 systematic review, registered in advance with PROSPERO and searched to 1 June 2026, found three human studies: a retrospective review of knee injections in 16 people, a retrospective pilot of bladder instillation for interstitial cystitis in 12, and a prospective intravenous safety pilot in 2. All reported improvement in most participants and no treatment-related adverse events; all were judged poor quality, and the review rated overall certainty very low and concluded the peptide should not be used clinically outside regulated trials. The registry adds one completed industry study: 40 people taking a 500 mcg BPC-157 gummy for eight weeks, all on the product, with C-reactive protein, interleukin-6 and self-reported swelling as outcomes. The animal literature, which is large, used per-kilogram amounts in rats; it is summarised on the BPC-157 page.
Equal micrograms are not equal amounts
The circulating figures overlap — 250 to 500 mcg for both — which makes them look comparable. By molecule count they are not. Sermorelin is 2.4 times heavier per molecule, so 250 mcg of it is about 74 nanomoles against about 176 for BPC-157. Because the two act on different targets, neither count says anything about effect; the arithmetic only shows that the matching microgram numbers are a coincidence of convention, not a shared dose.
The arithmetic per vial
| Vial | Water | Concentration | mcg per U-100 unit | 200 mcg | 250 mcg | 300 mcg | 500 mcg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 mg | 1 mL | 5,000 mcg/mL | 50 | 4 units | 5 units | 6 units | 10 units |
| 5 mg | 2 mL | 2,500 mcg/mL | 25 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 20 |
| 5 mg | 3 mL | 1,667 mcg/mL | 16.7 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 30 |
| 10 mg | 1 mL | 10,000 mcg/mL | 100 | 2 | 2.5 | 3 | 5 |
| 10 mg | 2 mL | 5,000 mcg/mL | 50 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 10 |
| 10 mg | 3 mL | 3,333 mcg/mL | 33.3 | 6 | 7.5 | 9 | 15 |
The table is the same for both compounds, because units on the syringe depend only on how much powder is in how much water. One U-100 unit is 0.01 mL; the insulin syringe units page shows how the barrels read. A 5 mg vial holds 20 of the 250 mcg amounts and 10 of the 500 mcg amounts for either compound. Water volumes, concentrations and the mixing arithmetic for each are on the sermorelin reconstitution and BPC-157 reconstitution pages.
What is not established
No study has compared sermorelin with BPC-157, and none has given them together. Sermorelin's adult use rests on a paediatric trial and on compounding practice; BPC-157's human use rests on 30 people in three uncontrolled reports. Neither circulating range has a trial behind it. Medibact's sermorelin guide and BPC-157 guide cover the compounds. Decisions about administering anything belong with a clinician.
Sources and dates
Opened 2026-10-22: openFDA Drugs@FDA records for NDA 019863 and NDA 020443 (Geref, EMD Serono); Thorner M et al., J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1996;81:1189-96 (abstract); Poolton JT, Minett J, Kazmi A, "Human evidence for BPC-157 in orthopaedic and regenerative medicine: a systematic review of efficacy and safety", Acta Orthop Belg 2026;92(3) (abstract); ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT07752381 and searches for BPC-157 (4) and sermorelin (42); PubChem CIDs 16132413 and 9941957. Circulating figures as recorded on this site's sermorelin and BPC-157 dosage pages on 2026-09-18. Molecule-count, concentration and unit arithmetic by this site. Corrections go to the contact page.