Head to head
CJC-1295 without DAC vs Selank
A comparison decided mostly by evidence: Selank has been studied in people to a degree the other has not.
Verdict
One has been tested in people; the other has not
What you are actually choosing between
These sit in different classes. CJC-1295 without DAC is a growth hormone secretagogue; Selank is a nootropic. They get compared because of where they overlap, not because they are interchangeable.
The overlap is recovery and sleep. On this site's goal weighting — an editorial priority score, not a measure of effect size — CJC-1295 without DAC rates 4/5 for recovery and sleep and Selank rates 4/5. Outside that overlap they diverge: CJC-1295 without DAC also carries weight for injury repair and muscle growth, Selank for focus and cognition.
The evidence
This is the part that decides most of it. Selank has approval from a regulator somewhere, though not a current FDA or EMA label — a registered Russian medicine; the trials are small and Russian-language. CJC-1295 without DAC has no controlled human data at all, so the numbers here come from practice, not a label — the closest approved comparators are sermorelin and tesamorelin. That gap is the headline, and it is a statement about the literature rather than a promise about you: a compound with trial data can still do nothing for your case, and one without it is unproven rather than disproven.
How they differ in practice
CJC-1295 without DAC is a subcutaneous injection; Selank is a nasal spray and a subcutaneous injection. That is the difference most people actually feel: CJC-1295 without DAC means reconstituting a vial and injecting; Selank does not require either. If needles are the deciding factor, this line settles it before any of the rest matters.
CJC-1295 without DAC has a characterized half-life of 30 min; Selank does not have one published here at all. That asymmetry is worth more than it looks — it usually tracks how much formal pharmacology has been done on a compound.
Committed time differs: CJC-1295 without DAC runs 12 weeks, Selank runs 2 weeks.
Risk and difficulty
The contraindication lists are not the same: CJC-1295 without DAC flags active malignancy, which Selank does not. If any of those describe you they remove a compound from consideration outright, regardless of everything above.
Source notes
What the evidence actually says
Verbatim, so you can check the verdict above against what it was built from.
CJC-1295 without DAC (Mod GRF 1-29)
Tetra-substituted GHRH (1-29) with no Drug Affinity Complex, so it clears in roughly 30 minutes and produces a single discrete GH pulse. That short half-life is the whole point: it is dosed once to three times daily, typically around 100 mcg (roughly 1-2 mcg/kg, a saturating pulse dose) on an empty stomach, and is paired with a ghrelin agonist such as ipamorelin. It is NOT an approved medicine; the closest approved comparators are sermorelin and tesamorelin. Consumer supply is research-chemical grade and dosing convention comes from practice, not from a label.
Selank
A synthetic heptapeptide analogue of the immune peptide tuftsin, again with a Pro-Gly-Pro tail added for stability. Its character is anxiolytic rather than stimulant, which is why it is usually paired with, not substituted for, Semax. Like Semax it is a Russian-registered intranasal medicine (commonly a 0.15% solution) and is NOT approved in the US or EU; the human evidence is small Russian trials in generalised anxiety disorder and adjustment disorder, some comparing it against benzodiazepines such as phenazepam, and it has not been independently replicated in Western trials. Route matters: it is an intranasal drug, not an injectable. Russian clinical dosing runs to roughly 1800-2700 mcg per day divided across two or three administrations; the per-dose range here reflects the more conservative doses typical of non-clinical use rather than the full trial daily total. Plasma half-life is minutes, so no hourly figure is listed. Courses are conventionally short (10-14 days) rather than continuous.
Side by side
The numbers
| Attribute | CJC-1295 without DAC | Selank |
|---|---|---|
| Class | GH secretagogue | Nootropic |
| Routes | Subcutaneous | Intranasal, Subcutaneous |
| Dose range | 100 mcg–300 mcg (typical 100 mcg) | 150 mcg–900 mcg (typical 300 mcg) |
| Frequency | Once daily | Twice daily |
| Half-life | 30 min | Not characterized |
| Cycle length | 12 weeks | 2 weeks |
| Experience | Intermediate | Intermediate |
| Evidence | Practice-derived only | Approved elsewhere |
| Contraindications |
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| Side effects |
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Turn a typical dose into a mark on the syringe: CJC-1295 without DACSelank
Goals
Where they overlap, and where they do not
| Goal | CJC-1295 without DAC | Selank |
|---|---|---|
| recovery and sleep | CJC-1295 without DAC: 4/5 | Selank: 4/5 |
| focus and cognitionone only | CJC-1295 without DAC: — | Selank: 3/5 |
| injury repairone only | CJC-1295 without DAC: 3/5 | Selank: — |
| muscle growthone only | CJC-1295 without DAC: 3/5 | Selank: — |
| fat lossone only | CJC-1295 without DAC: 2/5 | Selank: — |
| immune supportone only | CJC-1295 without DAC: — | Selank: 2/5 |
| longevityone only | CJC-1295 without DAC: 2/5 | Selank: — |
| neuroprotectionone only | CJC-1295 without DAC: — | Selank: 2/5 |
They overlap on 1 goal and diverge on 7. Weights are this site’s editorial priority score out of 5 — how central a goal is to why people use a compound. They are not effect sizes and two 5s do not mean two equal results.
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Educational information only, not medical advice. Talk to a licensed clinician before starting, changing, or stopping anything.