Tesamorelin and CJC-1295 are both copies of growth-hormone-releasing hormone, and both were first developed for the same people — adults with HIV and excess abdominal fat. One reached approval in 2010 and is dosed daily from a label; the other's phase 2 trial was terminated and its human record is two 2006 studies dosed per kilogram. Searchers comparing them usually want to know which is "better", which no study can answer. What the record can answer is how differently they are dosed. This page sets the two dose records side by side (read 2026-10-03) and does the arithmetic. It compares; it recommends neither.
The single-compound records are on the tesamorelin and CJC-1295 dosage pages; the two forms of CJC-1295 are separated on CJC-1295 DAC vs no DAC. For the development history and the regulatory record of this pairing, Peptifact's CJC-1295 vs tesamorelin covers ground this page does not repeat.
The two dose records
| Tesamorelin | CJC-1295 (with DAC) | |
|---|---|---|
| Label | EGRIFTA SV, EGRIFTA WR (current); EGRIFTA 1 mg/vial (original) | None |
| Labelled or trial dose | 1.4 mg daily (SV), 1.28 mg daily (WR); 2 mg daily in the pivotal trial | 30 and 60 mcg/kg named as best tolerated, single or weekly/biweekly (Teichman 2006) |
| At 70 kg | Same (not weight-based) | 2.1 and 4.2 mg per injection |
| Frequency | Once daily | Once, weekly or every two weeks in the studies |
| Half-life | 8 minutes (SV), 11 minutes (WR) | 5.8 to 8.1 days |
| Evidence | RCT, 412 people with HIV, 26 weeks | Two small studies in healthy adults; a terminated phase 2 trial in HIV |
The pivotal tesamorelin trial randomised 412 people with HIV and abdominal fat accumulation to 2 mg daily or placebo for 26 weeks; visceral fat fell 15.2% against a 5.0% rise (Falutz et al., NEJM 2007, PMID 18057338). Teichman and colleagues gave CJC-1295 to healthy adults aged 21 to 61 and reported growth-hormone rises of 2 to 10 times for six days or more and IGF-I rises of 1.5 to 3 times for 9 to 11 days after one injection (JCEM 2006, PMID 16352683). One trial measured an outcome in patients; the other measured hormones in healthy volunteers.
Minutes against days
The decisive difference is the half-life. Tesamorelin is cleared in minutes — 8 minutes for EGRIFTA SV, 11 for WR — so ten half-lives pass within about two hours and nothing carries into the next day. CJC-1295 with DAC binds albumin in the blood and lasts days: 5.8 to 8.1 days in Teichman's study. Taking the shortest CJC-1295 figure and the longest tesamorelin figure, 5.8 days is about 760 times 11 minutes.
That difference shapes everything else. A daily tesamorelin dose starts from zero each morning. A weekly CJC-1295 DAC dose does not: at a 5.8- to 8.1-day half-life, 43% to 55% of one injection remains when the next is given, and weekly dosing builds to about 1.76 to 2.22 times the level of a single dose (one-compartment arithmetic). Teichman's abstract reports exactly this kind of build-up: IGF-I stayed above baseline for up to 28 days after multiple doses.
CJC-1295 without DAC — the form much of the research market sells — is a different case: no published human half-life, and the human studies above do not apply to it.
Weekly totals and molecules per milligram
| Regimen | Milligrams per week | Micromoles (arithmetic) |
|---|---|---|
| Tesamorelin, EGRIFTA WR 1.28 mg daily | 8.96 mg | ≈1.74 µmol |
| Tesamorelin, EGRIFTA SV 1.4 mg daily | 9.8 mg | ≈1.91 µmol |
| Tesamorelin, pivotal 2 mg daily | 14 mg | ≈2.73 µmol |
| CJC-1295 DAC, 30 mcg/kg once (70 kg) | 2.1 mg | ≈0.58 µmol |
| CJC-1295 DAC, 60 mcg/kg once (70 kg) | 4.2 mg | ≈1.15 µmol |
Micromoles use PubChem's molecular weights: 5,136 for tesamorelin (CID 16137828) and 3,647.2 for CJC-1295 with DAC (CID 91971820). Per milligram, CJC-1295 carries about 1.41 times as many molecules. A week of labelled tesamorelin therefore delivers more peptide than a single trial dose of CJC-1295 — but in seven brief pulses rather than one long exposure. The two figures describe different shapes over time, not more or less of the same thing.
The doses in units, research vials
Neither compound's research-vial form is covered by a label. Units on a U-100 syringe = mg ÷ mg/mL × 100:
| Draw | 2.5 mg/mL | 5 mg/mL | 10 mg/mL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tesamorelin 1.28 mg | 51.2 units | 25.6 units | 12.8 units |
| Tesamorelin 1.4 mg | 56 units | 28 units | 14 units |
| Tesamorelin 2 mg | 80 units | 40 units | 20 units |
| CJC-1295 DAC 2 mg | 80 units | 40 units | 20 units |
| CJC-1295 no-DAC 100 mcg | 4 units | 2 units | 1 unit |
Two milligrams of either reads the same on a syringe, which is the trap: the same mark is a day's tesamorelin pulse or a week-long CJC-1295 exposure. Where tesamorelin is injected under its labels is on where to inject tesamorelin; water volumes are on tesamorelin and CJC-1295 reconstitution; any vial is in the calculator's tesamorelin and CJC-1295 settings.
What is not established
No trial compares the two. No CJC-1295 dose has been tested against an outcome in patients; its phase 2 trial in HIV visceral obesity (NCT00267527, started December 2005) was terminated with no results posted. No label covers either compound outside HIV-associated abdominal fat, and none covers CJC-1295 at all. The compounds are covered in Medibact's Tesamorelin guide and CJC-1295 guide. Nothing on this page is an instruction; dose and product belong with a clinician.
Sources and dates
Opened 2026-10-03: the EGRIFTA SV and EGRIFTA WR labels via openFDA (BLA 022505, Theratechnologies, effective 2026-07-29) — sections 2.1 and 12.3; PubMed abstracts 18057338 (Falutz et al., NEJM 2007) and 16352683 (Teichman et al., JCEM 2006); PubChem properties for CID 16137828 and CID 91971820; ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT00267527. The approval date is as recorded on this site's tesamorelin pages from Drugs@FDA. Doses at 70 kg, weekly totals, micromoles, accumulation and units are arithmetic by this site. Corrections go to the contact page.