GH Secretagogue Cheat Sheet: CJC-1295, Ipamorelin, Sermorelin, Tesamorelin & MOTS-c Compared

People land on our sermorelin, ipamorelin, and CJC-1295 supplier pages asking the same question in different words: which one of these is actually different from the others? The honest answer is that "GH secretagogue" covers two distinct mechanisms and a wide range of half-lives, from 8 minutes to several days, and the differences matter more than the shared label suggests. This is the side-by-side we wished existed: five compounds, one table, the numbers that actually distinguish them.

Quick vocabulary check before the table. A GHRH analog (CJC-1295, sermorelin, tesamorelin) mimics growth hormone releasing hormone and works through the GHRH receptor. A ghrelin/GH secretagogue receptor agonist (ipamorelin) works through a separate receptor and triggers GH release without the cortisol or prolactin bump older secretagogues can cause. MOTS-c is not a GH secretagogue at all, mechanistically. It is a mitochondrial-derived peptide studied for AMPK and metabolic signaling. We include it here because people research it alongside this group and its dosing/storage profile is genuinely comparable, not because it shares a mechanism.

Side-by-Side Comparison Table

Why the half-lives are so different

CJC-1295 without DAC and sermorelin both clear in under 35 minutes because neither has anything protecting it from enzymatic breakdown. Add the drug affinity complex (DAC) to CJC-1295 and it binds circulating albumin, which is why that version runs a 6-8 day half-life instead of 30 minutes (bc9.co, 2024). Tesamorelin sits at the fast end despite being a stabilized analog: the FDA label for Egrifta SV lists an 8 minute mean elimination half-life for the single-dose formulation, and 26-38 minutes for the older multi-dose Egrifta after 14 days of dosing.

Ipamorelin, at roughly 2 hours, lands in the middle because it works through a different receptor entirely (the ghrelin/GHS-R1a receptor) and was engineered for selectivity rather than persistence (Raun et al., European Journal of Endocrinology, 1998).

MOTS-c is the outlier for a different reason: there is no published human pharmacokinetic trial of the exogenous peptide. The 1-2 hour estimate circulating online comes from extrapolating an exercise-induced circulating spike returning to baseline within about 4 hours (Reynolds et al., Nature Communications, 2021), not from a dosing study. Treat any specific MOTS-c half-life figure, including ours, as an estimate rather than a measurement.

Tesamorelin is the one with an FDA file

Of the five, tesamorelin is the only compound currently FDA approved and on pharmacy shelves. Theratechnologies markets it as Egrifta and Egrifta SV for HIV-associated lipodystrophy, with a 1 mg daily subcutaneous dose specified on the label.

Sermorelin has FDA history but not current approval: EMD Serono sold it as Geref for pediatric growth hormone deficiency starting in 1997, and the product left the market in 2008. A 2013 Federal Register notice confirmed Geref was discontinued for reasons unrelated to safety or effectiveness, which is why compounding pharmacies can still legally prepare sermorelin today. CJC-1295, ipamorelin, and MOTS-c have never held FDA approval in any form and are sold exclusively as research compounds.

Dosing ranges, read correctly

Only tesamorelin has an FDA-labeled human dose. Everything else in this table is either historical prescribing information for a discontinued product (sermorelin) or a range drawn from published animal studies and widely used community research protocols, not a clinical recommendation. If a vendor product page states a dose as though it were established medical guidance for CJC-1295, ipamorelin, or MOTS-c, that is marketing language outrunning the evidence.

Storage, all five compounds

All five ship as lyophilized powder and follow the same basic rule: refrigerate the lyophilized vial, reconstitute with bacteriostatic water, then keep the reconstituted vial refrigerated and use it within 14-30 days depending on the specific peptide (see the full storage and reconstitution guide for exact windows per compound). None of these are shelf-stable at room temperature once reconstituted.

Where to price each one

We track live per-mg pricing across every US vendor for each of these compounds:

If you already know which compound you want and just need an active vendor discount for one, our current vendor coupon codes page lists every code we could independently verify, and says so plainly where a vendor has none. For the full eleven-peptide reference across categories beyond GH secretagogues, see the main peptide cheat sheet.

Sources

1. RxList. Sermorelin Acetate monograph (half-life, subcutaneous bioavailability): https://www.rxlist.com/sermorelin-acetate-drug.htm

2. Raun K et al. (1998). Ipamorelin, the first selective growth hormone secretagogue. Eur J Endocrinol. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9820497/

3. BC9. CJC-1295 DAC vs No-DAC half-life comparison: https://bc9.co/cjc-1295-dac-vs-no-dac/

4. FDA. Egrifta SV (tesamorelin) prescribing information, 2025 label: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2025/022505s020lbl.pdf

5. FDA. Egrifta (tesamorelin) prescribing information, 2019 label: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2019/022505Orig1s010lbl.pdf

6. FDA. Federal Register notice on GEREF (sermorelin acetate) discontinuation, 78 FR 14095, March 4, 2013: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2013/03/04/2013-04827/determination-that-geref-sermorelin-acetate-injection-05-milligrams-basevial-and-10-milligrams

7. Reynolds JC et al. (2021). MOTS-c is an exercise-induced mitochondrial-encoded regulator of age-dependent physical decline and muscle homeostasis. Nat Commun. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20790-0

8. Lee C et al. (2015). The mitochondrial-derived peptide MOTS-c promotes metabolic homeostasis. Cell Metab. PMC4350682: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4350682/

9. PeptidesRated vendor price data, all five compounds, August 2026: https://peptidesrated.com/vendors