Sermorelin: what the studies show, status and safety
Summary
Sermorelin is a lab-made copy of the first 29 building blocks of the hormone that tells the pituitary gland to release growth hormone. American regulators approved it twice, first in 1990 as a diagnostic test and then in 1997 for children with growth hormone deficiency. Both approvals ended on 18 June 2009, after the maker asked for them to be withdrawn, and no country licenses the substance today. In the approval trial the growth speed of 110 children rose from 4.1 to 8.0 centimetres a year, yet a review found that growth hormone itself worked better. Germany and Australia name sermorelin in their prescription-only schedules, and the world anti-doping list names it too.
Key findings at a glance
- Two American approvals, both now gone. The first came on 28 December 1990 for pituitary testing, the second on 26 September 1997 for children with growth hormone deficiency [1].
- The licences lapsed on 18 June 2009. The maker gave them up, and the regulator announced the withdrawal on 19 May 2009 [2].
- Not withdrawn for safety. On 4 March 2013 the American regulator formally determined that neither product had been taken off the market for reasons of safety or effectiveness [3].
- Growth speed roughly doubled in the approval study. In 110 children it rose from 4.1 centimetres a year to 8.0 at six months, with no comparison group [4].
- Growth hormone worked better. A review of the clinical record found less growth on sermorelin than on the same amount of growth hormone, and no head-to-head trial exists [5].
- Banned in sport at all times. The 2026 prohibited list names sermorelin in section S2.2.4, and German anti-doping law names it as well [6].
- Prescription-only by name, licensed nowhere. Germany lists it in schedule 1 of its prescription-medicines ordinance, and 17 American registrations cover it as a raw ingredient for compounding [7], [8].
What it is
Sermorelin is a chain of 29 amino acid building blocks with a capped tail end, made to match the front section of the human growth hormone releasing hormone. The natural hormone is 44 building blocks long; this fragment is the shortest piece that still carries its full biological activity [5].
The Swiss firm Serono developed it and held both American applications, which were marketed under the name Geref. Two products existed side by side. One was a low-strength ampoule, given once into a vein to test the pituitary gland. The other held stronger vials, meant for daily injection under the skin in children [1], [9].
Quick facts
| Field | Value | Ref |
|---|---|---|
| INN | sermorelin | [10] |
| Also written as | GHRH(1-29)-NH2, GRF(1-29)NH2 | [10] |
| Class | Growth hormone releasing hormone analogue | [5] |
| Structure | 29 amino acids, amide at the tail end | [5], [10] |
| Formula and mass | C149H246N44O42S, 3,357.9 g/mol | [10] |
| Half-life | About 10 to 20 minutes in human plasma | [11] |
| Given as | Injection into a vein for testing, under the skin for treatment | [1] |
| Status | Formerly approved in the United States; licensed nowhere today | [1], [2] |
| Developer | Serono, later EMD Serono Inc. | [1] |
| ATC codes | H01AC04 and V04CD03 | [12], [13] |
| CAS registry number | 86168-78-7 (free base) | [10] |
| UNII | 89243S03TE | [10] |
| PubChem CID | 16132413 | [10] |
| InChIKey | WGWPRVFKDLAUQJ-MITYVQBRSA-N | [10] |
| ChEMBL | CHEMBL428135 | [14] |
| ChEBI | CHEBI:9118 | [14] |
How it works
Sermorelin is not growth hormone. It acts one step earlier, by telling the pituitary gland to release the hormone the body makes itself.
- It docks onto the receptor for growth hormone releasing hormone on the somatotroph cells of the front lobe of the pituitary gland, and switches them on [5], [15].
- Those cells then release growth hormone in bursts, which is how this system normally works, rather than as a steady level in the blood [5].
- Because the signal passes through the pituitary gland, the body's own brake still applies. Somatostatin, the hormone that damps this circuit, keeps working [5].
- Given under the skin at night in older adults, the release of growth hormone begins within 10 minutes and lasts about two hours [16].
- The peptide leaves the blood quickly. Its half-life is roughly 10 to 20 minutes, because the kidneys filter it out and enzymes clip its front end [11].
That short life shaped everything that came after it. Under a steady drip into a vein in 10 healthy men, levels fell with a half-life of 4.3 ± 1.4 minutes. Clearance ran at 39.7 ± 3.9 millilitres per kilogram per minute [17].
In rats, 5.1 per cent of an injection under the skin reached the circulation. The equivalent figure in humans has never been established [18]. Later analogues were built specifically to slow that breakdown down [11].
What the studies found
Almost all of the human evidence is old, small and uncontrolled. It splits into two groups. One is children with growth hormone deficiency. The other is healthy older adults, in whom only blood measurements were taken.
Growth in children with growth hormone deficiency
Open-label multicentre study The study behind the 1997 American approval enrolled 110 previously untreated children before puberty, of whom 86 entered the efficacy analysis. Their average growth speed rose from 4.1 ± 0.9 centimetres a year at the start to 8.0 ± 1.5 after six months. After twelve months it settled at 7.2 ± 1.3.
At six months, 74 per cent of the children counted as good responders. Bone age advanced in step with height age, with a ratio of 1.04 ± 0.58 that did not differ from 1 (p = 0.63). Fasting blood sugar and the growth factor IGF-1 showed no unwanted shifts. There was no comparison group [4].
110 previously untreated children before puberty with growth hormone deficiency, 86 of them in the efficacy analysis. Open-label study with no comparison group. Source [4].
Open treatment series The earliest series treated 18 children before puberty, 14 of whom had already had growth hormone. Growth speed increased in 12 of the 18. Eight counted as clear responders, gaining more than 2 centimetres a year, with individual gains ranging from 2.7 to 11.2 centimetres a year.
Four of the 14 previously treated children grew more slowly on sermorelin, for reasons the authors could not explain. Antibodies against the hormone appeared in 14 of the 18, without any visible effect on growth or on the response to treatment [9].
18 children before puberty with growth hormone deficiency, 14 of them previously treated with growth hormone. Treatment lasted 6 to 18 months. Source [9].
Before-and-after series Nine children whose growth hormone deficiency followed radiotherapy to the head were treated for a year. Growth speed rose from 3.3 centimetres a year, with a standard deviation of 1.1, to 6.0 with a standard deviation of 1.5 (p = 0.004).
In the year that followed, on growth hormone instead, the same children grew at 7.5 centimetres a year, standard deviation 1.5. Bone age advanced by an average of 1.1 years per calendar year during the sermorelin year [19].
Where sermorelin fell short of growth hormone
Narrative review This is the finding that decided the substance's fate. A 1999 review compared published studies indirectly. It concluded that the gain in growth speed under sermorelin was smaller than under the same daily amount of growth hormone.
No head-to-head trial at the approved strengths was ever run, and the effect on the height these children eventually reached as adults remains unknown [5].
Hormone levels in older adults
Randomised crossover series Nine healthy young men, average age 26.2 ± 4.1 years, were compared with 10 healthy older men, average age 68.0 ± 6.2 years. The older men received a lower and a higher dose arm in random order, two weeks each, with two weeks between them.
Only the higher arm produced significant increases over the older men's own baseline. They covered average growth hormone across 24 hours (p < 0.001), the area under the hormone pulses (p < 0.001), pulse height (p < 0.05) and IGF-1 (p < 0.005).
After it, those measures no longer differed significantly between the young and the old men.
Phosphate rose (p < 0.05). Fasting blood sugar, urinary C-peptide, blood pressure and the routine blood panels did not move. Every one of these is a laboratory value, not a measure of strength, function or wellbeing [20].
Placebo-controlled study Ten women and nine men aged 55 to 71 had four weeks of placebo followed by 16 weeks of active treatment at night. The release of growth hormone began within 10 minutes and lasted about two hours, and that pattern held for the whole study.
Measured against placebo, growth hormone secretion summed across 12 night-time hours rose significantly [16]. The immune analysis of the same group put that rise at 107 per cent in the men and 70 per cent in the women (p < 0.05). IGF-1 rose by 28 per cent (p < 0.001).
After four weeks, lymphocytes carrying the transferrin receptor CD71 rose by 30 per cent (p < 0.001), and CD14 monocytes rose as well (p < 0.05).
After 16 weeks, CD20 B cells rose by 30 per cent (p < 0.01). Cells with the alpha/beta T-cell receptor rose by 20 per cent (p < 0.01), and those with the gamma/delta receptor by 40 per cent (p < 0.0001).
CD3 T cells, the CD4 and CD8 subsets and the CD57 natural killer cells did not change. No clinical benefit was measured at any point [21].
The study that measured strength and found little
Open treatment series Eleven healthy, non-obese men aged 64 to 76 with low starting IGF-1 injected themselves nightly for six weeks. Night-time growth hormone release rose (p < 0.02), as did the area under the pulse (p < 0.006) and pulse height (p < 0.05).
IGF-1 itself did not change, and neither did its carrier protein IGFBP-3 or the growth hormone binding protein. Of six strength measures, two improved: the upright row (p < 0.02) and the shoulder press (p < 0.04). One endurance test, the abdominal crunch, improved as well (p < 0.03).
Weight, body mass index, the waist-to-hip ratio, the scan measurements of muscle and fat, the muscle tissue itself, blood sugar, insulin and blood fats all stayed where they were. The authors concluded that a single nightly dose does less than several doses spread through the day [22].
As a diagnostic test
Diagnostic series In 131 children assessed for growth hormone deficiency, of whom 45 had it, a peak above 10 nanograms per millilitre counted as normal. Three of the 86 children without the condition fell below that line, and 11 of the 45 with it rose above it.
The response did not track the results of the insulin or arginine tests. On its own, the test cannot rule out a deficiency that originates in the hypothalamus rather than the pituitary gland [5], [23].
Mechanistic study Five women with untreated active Cushing's disease were tested against four healthy controls. The growth hormone peak after an injection reached 1.2 ± 0.4 micrograms per litre in the patients, against 24.6 ± 4.6 in the controls (p < 0.05).
Galanin lifted the controls to 51.4 ± 9.8 (p < 0.05) but left the patients at 2.3 ± 0.6 [24].
What is still unknown
- Whether sermorelin does anything for healthy adults. No controlled study has measured lifespan, illness, falls, everyday muscle function or athletic performance under it [25].
- What the height outcome was for the children treated. Final adult height was never reported [5].
- What long-term use does. There is no long-term safety study, no cancer study under sustained stimulation of growth hormone, and no safety database for months or years of self-administration [25], [26].
- How the substance behaves in pregnancy, in breastfeeding, or with impaired kidneys or liver. None of this has been studied.
- Whether the compounded preparations sold today match what was studied. Nobody has published an analysis of them.
Side effects and safety
The honest starting point is a gap: no product information sheet for either former product is publicly available any more, so no table of side-effect frequencies can be quoted [27].
- Brief facial flushing and pain at the injection site were the most frequently reported events across the clinical record. The review that reports them gives no percentages, and none can be verified from any other source [5].
- Antibodies against the hormone in 14 of 18 children in the 1987 series. They had no visible effect on growth or on the response to treatment. In a later study of a longer-acting version in healthy volunteers, no such antibodies appeared [9], [28].
- Injection-site reactions were more common than on placebo in that same later study, where they were mild and passed on their own [28].
- Slower growth in four of 14 children who had previously had growth hormone. The cause was never established, and this is the most concrete harm signal in the record [9].
- Bone age moving faster than height. In children treated after radiotherapy, bone age advanced by 1.1 years per calendar year. In the approval study the ratio of bone age to height age was 1.04 ± 0.58, which did not differ from 1 (p = 0.63) [4], [19].
- Blood sugar. Repeated dosing with a longer-acting version worsened glucose tolerance in older participants. For unmodified sermorelin no such effect was seen: fasting blood sugar, the insulin response and blood fats stayed unchanged in both older-adult studies [20], [22], [28].
Formal contraindications cannot be stated, because they would have to come from a valid product information sheet and none exists [27]. Two further gaps matter. There are no data on pregnancy or breastfeeding, and none on impaired kidney or liver function.
Reviews of this class of peptides describe endocrine and metabolic disturbances. They list rises in prolactin and cortisol, changes in appetite and disturbed blood sugar. Fluid retention, muscle and joint pain and reactions at the injection site appear as well [25], [26].
Material bought outside a pharmacy carries a further problem that has nothing to do with the molecule. Its composition, strength and purity are unverified.
Why this page lists no doses
Sermorelin is a prescription-only substance by name in Germany and Australia, and it was a prescription medicine wherever it was ever sold. Choosing an amount is a matter for a doctor and a valid product information sheet, so this page reports what the studies measured without repeating the amounts they used.
Development and approval status
From two approvals to no approval
- 1990First American approval on 28 December, as a diagnostic testApplication 019863, classed as a new molecular entity, ref [1]
- 1997Second American approval on 26 September, for children with growth hormone deficiencyApplication 020443, granted orphan status, ref [1]
- 2008The maker notifies the regulator that it has stopped selling both productsWithdrawal of both applications requested in December, ref [1]
- 2009Withdrawal announced on 19 May and effective on 18 JuneFederal Register 74 FR 23407, ref [2]
- 2013Regulator determines on 4 March that neither product was withdrawn for safety or effectivenessFederal Register 78 FR 14095, docket FDA-2012-P-1071, ref [3]
- 202617 American registrations as a raw ingredient for compounding, from 16 filersNo entry on any compounding category list, refs [8], [29]
- 2026Named on the anti-doping list and in the German and Australian schedulesRefs [6], [7], [30]
- 1990 — the first application is approved on 28 December as a new molecular entity, for testing whether the pituitary gland can release growth hormone [1].
- 1997 — a second application is approved on 26 September, with orphan status, for idiopathic growth hormone deficiency in children with growth failure [1].
- 2008 — the maker tells the regulator it has stopped selling both products, and applies in December to withdraw both licences [1].
- 2009 — the withdrawal is published on 19 May and takes effect on 18 June [2].
- 2013 — following a citizen petition, the regulator determines on 4 March that neither product was withdrawn for reasons of safety or effectiveness [3].
| Market | Status | Since or note |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Withdrawn | 2009-06-18 |
| European Union | Not approved | Never centralised |
| Germany | Prescription-only | Named in schedule 1 |
| United Kingdom | Not approved | Register empty |
| Australia | Prescription-only | Schedule 4 |
| Canada | Not approved | Register empty |
| Switzerland | Not approved | List empty |
The 2013 determination has a practical consequence. It allows the regulator to approve generic applications for these products, if everything else is in order, and both remain listed among discontinued products. No generic has appeared [3].
What exists in the United States instead is a compounded preparation. On 10 September 2026 the national drug code directory held 17 registrations of sermorelin acetate as an unfinished raw ingredient.
Sixteen different companies filed them, among them American distributors and Chinese and Indian manufacturers. Thirteen are declared as bulk ingredient for human prescription compounding, four as bulk ingredient [8].
One detail sets sermorelin apart from its neighbours. It appears on none of the three American category lists for compounding ingredients, and on no list of substances judged to raise significant safety risks. CJC-1295, ipamorelin, GHRP-2, GHRP-6, AOD-9604, BPC-157, epitalon, selank, semax, MOTS-c, melanotan II and TB-500 all do appear there. Sermorelin simply is not in those documents [29], [31].
The remaining rows are searches that came back empty. Each was run on 10 September 2026 against a control term that did return results.
- The European register holds nothing, including among withdrawn applications [32].
- The British index returns nothing for the substance or the brand [33].
- The Canadian database returns an empty list, where tesamorelin returns two records [34].
- The Swiss lists of authorised human medicines hold nothing [35].
- The Spanish register returns nothing, where somatropin returns 45 entries [36].
- The Russian state register produced no result either. That query is a weak one and should not be read as proof [37].
Germany and Australia are the two places where the substance is named in law, rather than simply absent from a register. German schedule 1 lists sermorelin and, separately, somatorelin, the name for the full-length hormone [7].
Australia lists the substance in schedule 4 of its Poisons Standard. The entry carries no mark for appendix D, so the extra controls of that appendix do not apply [30]. The wider framework is set out under are peptides legal and FDA-approved peptides.
Every entry reflects the position on 10 September 2026.
Anti-doping
Sermorelin is banned in sport at all times, in competition and out of it, and everything in its class counts as a non-specified substance.
The 2026 prohibited list names it directly in section S2.2.4: "growth hormone releasing factors, including, but not limited to: growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) and its analogues (e.g. CJC-1293, CJC-1295, sermorelin and tesamorelin)" [6].
German anti-doping law names it in section 2.4 of its schedule, alongside somatorelin, tesamorelin and mod-GRF CJC-1295 [38]. A voluntary American testing programme repeats the same wording [39].
Detection is hard. A 2021 study noted that these analogues are demonstrably used, yet had not turned up in accredited laboratories. The authors put that down to very low urine concentrations and to gaps in what is known about how the body breaks them down.
They identified 19 main breakdown products of sermorelin, tesamorelin and the two CJC molecules, and made them as reference substances [40]. More on this class at peptides banned in sport.
Compared with related peptides
| Peptide | What it is | Status | On the 2026 prohibited list |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sermorelin | The first 29 building blocks of the natural hormone, unaltered [5] | Formerly approved in the United States, licensed nowhere today [1], [2] | Yes, named in S2.2.4 [6] |
| Tesamorelin | The full 44 building blocks, stabilised at the front end [40] | Approved in the United States only [40] | Yes, named in S2.2.4 [6] |
| CJC-1295 | The same 29-building-block backbone with four substitutions [41] | Never approved; sold as a research compound [25] | Yes, named in S2.2.4 [6] |
| CJC-1295 DAC | The same molecule with a hook that binds it to a blood protein [41] | Never approved; sold as a research compound [25] | Covered by the same entry [6] |
| Ipamorelin | A growth hormone secretagogue, working through a different receptor [25] | Never approved; on an American compounding risk list [31] | Not named in that entry [6] |
| Hexarelin | Another secretagogue of the same family [25] | Never approved; sold as a research compound [25] | Not named in that entry [6] |
| Growth hormone | The hormone itself, given directly [12] | Approved as a medicine in many countries [12] | Prohibited under a separate entry [6] |
The first four all press the same button, and they are still not interchangeable. Sermorelin is the plain fragment and leaves the blood in minutes; CJC-1295 with its carrier hook stays measurable for about 72 hours [41]. Tesamorelin carries the whole natural sequence and is the only one of the four with a licence anywhere [40].
Ipamorelin and hexarelin belong to a different family altogether. They reach growth hormone through the receptor for the hunger hormone ghrelin, not the one sermorelin uses. That is why the doping list treats them under another heading [6], [25].
Growth hormone sits at the other end. Given directly, it bypasses the pituitary gland and the body's own brake, and it produced more growth in children than sermorelin did [5]. The drug coding system separates the two as well: somatropin is coded H01AC01, sermorelin H01AC04 [12].
Common misconceptions
- "Sermorelin is FDA-approved." In the past tense that is true, in the present tense it is not. Both American licences ended on 18 June 2009, and no country has licensed a finished sermorelin medicine since [1], [2].
- "It was pulled for safety reasons." No. The regulator stated formally in March 2013 that neither product had been withdrawn for reasons of safety or effectiveness. That is not the same as a clean bill of health: it means only that no safety motive was found behind a commercial decision [3].
- "Sermorelin and CJC-1295 are the same thing." Both descend from the same 29-building-block fragment. CJC-1295 changes four of those blocks and adds a hook that binds it to a blood protein, stretching its stay from minutes to about 72 hours [41].
- "Sermorelin and somatorelin are two names for one substance." They are not. Somatorelin is the full 44-building-block hormone, sermorelin the shortened fragment, and German law lists them separately [7].
- "It is legal in the United States, so it must be safe." What is legal there is a compounded preparation on a doctor's order. Compounded medicines undergo no regulatory review of effectiveness, safety or manufacturing quality [8].
- "There are plenty of clinical trials of sermorelin." A registry search returns 27 records. The term catches every study using any growth hormone releasing hormone, including at least nine on tesamorelin. Only two records name the finished preparation, both as a diagnostic test [42].
- "It is proven for anti-ageing." The 2006 article that promoted it for longevity medicine is an opinion piece from an interested society, with no data of its own [43].
- "It works against brain tumours." A 2021 paper named sermorelin as the top candidate of a computer screen across gene activity data from 1,018 glioma patients. No person and no animal was treated [44].
Frequently asked questions
Is sermorelin FDA-approved?
Not any more. It was approved in the United States from 1990, first as a test of pituitary function and from 1997 also as a treatment for children with growth hormone deficiency. The maker stopped selling it in 2008 and asked for both licences to be withdrawn, which took effect on 18 June 2009. Since then no country has licensed a finished sermorelin medicine.
Why was sermorelin taken off the market?
For commercial reasons, not safety ones. The American regulator stated formally in March 2013 that neither product had been withdrawn for reasons of safety or effectiveness. The withdrawal came from the maker. Behind it lay a simple problem: in children with growth hormone deficiency the substance produced less growth than growth hormone itself, so it never found a market.
What did the studies of sermorelin in children show?
The approval study followed 110 previously untreated children, of whom 86 entered the efficacy analysis. Their average growth speed rose from 4.1 centimetres a year to 8.0 at six months and 7.2 at twelve months, and there was no comparison group. An earlier series of 18 children found faster growth in 12 of them, but four of the children who had already had growth hormone grew more slowly on sermorelin.
Does sermorelin work for anti-ageing?
No controlled study has ever tested that. The studies in older people measured hormone levels in blood, not health, and the largest of them ran for five months in 19 participants. A six-week series in 11 older men found no change in body fat, lean mass, muscle tissue, blood sugar or blood fats, and only two of six strength measures improved.
How long does sermorelin stay in the body?
Not long. Plasma levels fall with a half-life of roughly 10 to 20 minutes, because the kidneys filter the peptide out and enzymes clip its front end. Under a steady drip into a vein the decline was faster still, at 4.3 minutes. That short life is exactly why later analogues such as CJC-1295 were built to last longer.
What are the side effects of sermorelin?
The published record is thin, because no product information sheet is available any more. The most frequently reported events in a review of its clinical use were brief facial flushing and pain where the injection was given. In the 1987 series, 14 of 18 children developed antibodies against the hormone, with no visible effect on their growth or their response to it.
Is sermorelin banned in sport?
Yes, at all times, in and out of competition. The 2026 prohibited list names it in section S2.2.4 among the growth hormone releasing factors, and everything in that class counts as a non-specified substance. German anti-doping law names it separately, and a voluntary American testing programme lists it in the same words.
Is sermorelin legal to buy?
Not without a prescription. Germany names sermorelin in schedule 1 of its prescription-medicines ordinance, and Australia lists it in schedule 4 of the Poisons Standard. Both treat it as prescription-only whether or not a licensed product exists. In the United States it is dispensed as a compounded preparation on a doctor's order, which involves no regulatory review of safety, effectiveness or manufacturing quality.
Is sermorelin the same as CJC-1295?
No. Sermorelin is the unaltered sequence of the first 29 building blocks of the human hormone, and it disappears from the blood within minutes. CJC-1295 changes four of those building blocks and adds a chemical hook that binds to a blood protein, which keeps it detectable for about 72 hours. Sermorelin was once an approved medicine; CJC-1295 never was.
Are there clinical trials of sermorelin running today?
No. A registry search returns 27 records, but nearly all of them are other substances caught by the search term, including at least nine tesamorelin studies. Only two records name the finished sermorelin preparation, and both used it as a diagnostic test rather than a treatment. No therapeutic study of the substance is recruiting.
Sources
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- Ogilvy-Stuart AL, Stirling HF, Kelnar CJ et al. (1997). Treatment of radiation-induced growth hormone deficiency with growth hormone-releasing hormone. Clinical Endocrinology (Oxford) 46(5):571-578. PMID 9231053. DOI 10.1046/j.1365-2265.1997.1790998.x
- Corpas E, Harman SM, Piñeyro MA et al. (1992). Growth hormone (GH)-releasing hormone-(1-29) twice daily reverses the decreased GH and insulin-like growth factor-I levels in old men. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 75(2):530-535. PMID 1379256. DOI 10.1210/jcem.75.2.1379256
- Khorram O, Yeung M, Vu L et al. (1997). Effects of norleucine27growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) (1-29)-NH2 administration on the immune system of aging men and women. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 82(11):3590-3596. PMID 9360512. DOI 10.1210/jcem.82.11.4363
- Vittone J, Blackman MR, Busby-Whitehead J et al. (1997). Effects of single nightly injections of growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH 1-29) in healthy elderly men. Metabolism 46(1):89-96. PMID 9005976. DOI 10.1016/s0026-0495(97)90174-8
- Ranke MB, Gruhler M, Rosskamp R et al. (1986). Testing with growth hormone-releasing factor (GRF(1-29)NH2) and somatomedin C measurements for the evaluation of growth hormone deficiency. European Journal of Pediatrics 145(6):485-492. PMID 2880720. DOI 10.1007/BF02429048
- Giustina A, Bossoni S, Bussi AR et al. (1993). Effect of galanin on the growth hormone (GH) response to GH-releasing hormone in patients with Cushing's disease. Endocrine Research 19(1):47-56. PMID 7681769. DOI 10.1080/07435809309035407
- Dominikowski A, Rękoś Z, Olejarz M et al. (2026). The emerging landscape of performance-enhancing peptides modulating the GH-IGF1 axis. Frontiers in Endocrinology 17:1822475. PMID 42395176. DOI 10.3389/fendo.2026.1822475
- Mendias CL, Awan TM (2026). Safety and efficacy of approved and unapproved peptide therapies for musculoskeletal injuries and athletic performance. Sports Medicine 56(8):1921-1935. PMID 41966639. DOI 10.1007/s40279-026-02437-0
- Drugs@FDA, overview page for application 020443: "Label is not available on this site." Retrieved 10 September 2026. https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/daf/index.cfm?event=overview.process&ApplNo=020443
- Munafo A, Nguyen TX, Papasouliotis O et al. (2005). Polyethylene glycol-conjugated growth hormone-releasing hormone is long acting and stimulates GH in healthy young and elderly subjects. European Journal of Endocrinology 153(2):249-256. PMID 16061831. DOI 10.1530/eje.1.01965
- US Food and Drug Administration. 503A Category 1, 2 and 3 bulk drug substances, as at 14 May 2026; read in full, no sermorelin entry on any of the three lists. https://www.fda.gov/media/94155/download
- Commonwealth of Australia. Therapeutic Goods (Poisons Standard—June 2026) Instrument 2026, authorised version F2026L00633, registered 28 May 2026. Schedule 4 entry "SERMORELIN", without the mark denoting appendix D. https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2026L00633
- US Food and Drug Administration. Certain Bulk Drug Substances for Use in Compounding That May Present Significant Safety Risks. Retrieved 10 September 2026; contains CJC-1295, ipamorelin acetate, GHRP-2, GHRP-6, AOD-9604, BPC-157, epitalon, selank, semax, MOTS-c, melanotan II and others, but no sermorelin. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/human-drug-compounding/certain-bulk-drug-substances-use-compounding-may-present-significant-safety-risks
- European Medicines Agency, medicines register, full-text search "sermorelin", 10 September 2026: no result, including among withdrawn applications. https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines?search_api_fulltext=sermorelin
- MHRA Products, full-text index of the British medicines register, 10 September 2026: no result for the substance or the brand; the control term somatropin returns results in the same index. https://products.mhra.gov.uk/search/?search=sermorelin
- Health Canada, Drug Product Database API, 10 September 2026: empty lists for the substance and the brand; the control term tesamorelin returns two records. https://health-products.canada.ca/api/drug/activeingredient/?ingredientname=sermorelin&lang=en&type=json
- Swissmedic, extended list of authorised human medicines and packaging list, checked 10 September 2026: no entry, while control terms in the same files do appear. https://www.swissmedic.ch/swissmedic/de/home/services/listen_neu.html
- Agencia Española de Medicamentos y Productos Sanitarios, CIMA REST API, 10 September 2026: no result for the substance or the brand; the control term somatropina returns 45 records. https://cima.aemps.es/cima/rest/medicamentos?practiv1=sermorelina
- State Register of Medicines (GRLS), Russia, query for the international name, 10 September 2026: no result. A weak null finding, as noted in the source record. https://grls.minzdrav.gov.ru/GRLS.aspx
- Schedule to the German Anti-Doping Act (AntiDopG), section II number 2.4, growth hormone releasing factors. Retrieved 10 September 2026. https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/antidopg/anlage.html
- Voluntary Anti-Doping Association. VADA Prohibited List 2026, growth hormone releasing hormone analogues.
- Memdouh S, Gavrilović I, Ng K et al. (2021). Advances in the detection of growth hormone releasing hormone synthetic analogs. Drug Testing and Analysis 13(11-12):1871-1887. PMID 34665524. DOI 10.1002/dta.3183
- Jetté L, Léger R, Thibaudeau K et al. (2005). Human growth hormone-releasing factor (hGRF)1-29-albumin bioconjugates activate the GRF receptor on the anterior pituitary in rats: identification of CJC-1295 as a long-lasting GRF analog. Endocrinology 146(7):3052-3058. PMID 15817669. DOI 10.1210/en.2004-1286
- ClinicalTrials.gov API v2, query for the substance as an intervention, 10 September 2026: 27 records, nearly all of them other substances; only two name the finished preparation. https://clinicaltrials.gov/api/v2/studies?query.intr=sermorelin
- Walker RF (2006). Sermorelin: a better approach to management of adult-onset growth hormone insufficiency? Clinical Interventions in Aging 1(4):307-308. PMID 18046908. DOI 10.2147/ciia.2006.1.4.307
- Chang Y, Huang R, Zhai Y et al. (2021). A potentially effective drug for patients with recurrent glioma: sermorelin. Annals of Translational Medicine 9(5):406. PMID 33842627. DOI 10.21037/atm-20-6561
Cite this page
The facts on this page were checked on 10 September 2026, and every register behind the status table was queried on that same day. Legal schedules and doping lists change from year to year, so the version and the date matter as much as the text.
myPeptides Research & Editing. (2026). Sermorelin: what the studies show, status and safety. Version 1.0, 10 September 2026. myPeptides Peptide Register. Retrieved from https://mypep.app/peptides/sermorelin
How pages in this register are compiled and graded is described under methodology; the full register is at peptides.
| Version | Date | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | 2026-09-10 | Initial publication |
Last verified: 10 September 2026. Next review: on any change to the anti-doping list, to the German or Australian schedules, or on any new human study.