SHRED Blend (AOD-9604 / CJC-1295 / Ipamorelin / MOTS-c): What It Is, Where to Get It Prescribed, and What It Costs

SHRED is not a single molecule. It is four independently studied peptides — AOD-9604, CJC-1295, ipamorelin and MOTS-c — dissolved together in one sterile multi-dose vial by a compounding pharmacy. Each has its own literature, its own described mechanism and its own regulatory file at the FDA. The name is a brand name for the combination and does not appear in any journal, so "does SHRED work" has to be broken into four questions.

The rationale prescribers give is that body composition is governed by more than one signal. AOD-9604 is the part of growth hormone to which animal work attributes fat-metabolism activity. CJC-1295 and ipamorelin are two different signals converging on the pituitary's growth hormone pulse — one through the GHRH receptor, one through the ghrelin receptor — paired because the two routes are described as additive. MOTS-c is the metabolic component, described in mouse work as acting on AMPK, the enzyme cells use to sense energy.

The proportions are a near-even split: three components at 10 mg and CJC-1295 at 6 mg. The ratio is fixed by the pharmacy's formulation and cannot be adjusted per component, which is the genuine trade-off of any blend.

It is not a GLP-1 medication and does not work the way semaglutide or tirzepatide work. It is not growth hormone: two components are described as prompting the body's own release, and the fragment does not act on growth or glucose signalling the way the full hormone does. It is not an appetite suppressant. And it is not a substitute for the diet, training and sleep that body composition actually turns on.

Human growth hormone is 191 amino acids long. AOD-9604 reproduces its final stretch, residues 177 to 191, with a tyrosine added at the front. The idea, developed in Australia in the 1990s, was that the fat-metabolism activity of growth hormone might be separable from its effects on growth and glucose handling.

The animal work supports that as a description. A 2000 paper in Hormone Research and two 2001 papers, in Endocrinology and the International Journal of Obesity, reported that chronic treatment of obese mice increased fat oxidation and reduced weight gain without the insulin or IGF-1 changes the full hormone produces; the Endocrinology paper reported the beta-3 adrenergic receptor was involved, at least in part. All of this is mouse work; what the human trials found is different, and is covered below.

Growth-hormone-releasing hormone is the hypothalamic signal that tells the pituitary to release growth hormone. CJC-1295 is a modified version of its active first 29 amino acids, with substitutions that protect it from the enzymes that clear the native hormone within minutes. Same receptor; the difference is duration.

This is the component with pharmacology characterised in people. A 2006 study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism gave healthy adults single and repeated injections and reported growth hormone and IGF-1 staying elevated for days; a companion paper in the same journal that year reported that the pituitary's natural pulsatile pattern persisted rather than being flattened, which matters because the pulse is how the body normally delivers the hormone.

Ipamorelin is a five-amino-acid peptide acting at the ghrelin receptor on the pituitary, a second and separate route to growth hormone release. A 1998 paper in the European Journal of Endocrinology described it as the first selective growth hormone secretagogue: in rats and pigs it prompted growth hormone release without the ACTH and cortisol rise the earlier compounds GHRP-2 and GHRP-6 produced. That is why it is the ghrelin-receptor agent usually paired with a GHRH analogue. Its human pharmacology is a 1999 dose-escalation study in 48 healthy men, described in the FDA's briefing, which characterised the growth hormone response rather than any clinical outcome.

MOTS-c is encoded in mitochondrial DNA, within the 12S ribosomal RNA gene, rather than in the nucleus. Its discovery, reported in Cell Metabolism in 2015, was part of the evidence that mitochondria send peptide signals to the rest of the cell rather than only producing energy. In that paper MOTS-c treatment in mice was described as activating AMPK through the folate and methionine cycles and as preventing diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance.

A 2021 paper in Nature Communications reported MOTS-c rising in mouse and human muscle and human serum after exercise, and treatment in aged mice improving physical performance. A 2019 observational study in Frontiers in Endocrinology reported lower circulating MOTS-c in people with type 2 diabetes. Those human findings concern the body's own MOTS-c; nobody has reported what injected MOTS-c does in people.

The map below is the clinical rationale for the blend. It is a rationale, not a finding.

This is where the honest reading of SHRED starts, because AOD-9604 is the component people most often assume is proven and it is the one with the clearest negative human result. The mouse work reported increased fat oxidation and reduced weight gain. The human programme, run by Metabolic Pharmaceuticals in the 2000s, did not reproduce that. Three small early studies in adults with obesity, using intravenous and oral dosing, reported a rise in circulating free fatty acids but no significant weight loss versus placebo. The phase 2B trial — 536 people with obesity enrolled, oral doses of 0.25 to 1 mg daily alongside a supervised diet and exercise programme for 24 weeks — did not meet its primary endpoint of significant weight loss versus placebo, and the company terminated development for obesity in February 2007.

Two details matter. Those trials used oral and intravenous routes, not the subcutaneous route SHRED uses, and the FDA's 2024 review found no human exposure data for subcutaneous AOD-9604 at all. So the human data neither supports nor directly tests a subcutaneous dose; what it establishes is that, when properly tested, the fragment did not produce measurable weight loss against placebo.

CJC-1295 has the best-characterised human pharmacology of the four: sustained growth hormone and IGF-1 rises in healthy adults with preserved pulsatility. Ipamorelin's human data is the 1999 pharmacokinetic study and a 2014 phase 2 trial in postoperative bowel-surgery patients — a gut-motility study, not a growth hormone study — which did not show a significant difference from placebo on its primary endpoint. Neither compound has a randomised trial measuring body composition, sleep or recovery. A growth hormone rise is a pharmacological finding; what it does over months to fat or lean mass has not been measured for either.

MOTS-c has a coherent animal literature and human observational data on the body's own levels. What it does not have is any trial of the injected peptide in people: the FDA's 2026 review stated that it identified no clinical studies or human exposure data for MOTS-c by any route. That review also noted a laboratory finding that MOTS-c breaks down quickly in human blood, which raises a fair, unanswered question about how much of an injected dose reaches tissue intact.

There are no randomised controlled trials of SHRED, or of any four-peptide combination of these components, in humans. The blend has never been studied as a blend. Evidence is per component, and it is uneven:

• AOD-9604 has the most human trial data of the four, and it is negative for its intended purpose: the oral and intravenous obesity programme, including a 536-person phase 2B trial, did not demonstrate significant weight loss versus placebo and was discontinued in 2007.
• CJC-1295 has pharmacology studies in healthy adults reporting sustained growth hormone and IGF-1 elevation, and no randomised trial of any clinical outcome.
• Ipamorelin has a pharmacokinetic study in healthy men and one phase 2 trial for postoperative ileus that did not meet its endpoint. No randomised trial of body composition.
• MOTS-c has no human trials of any kind.

Much of medicine rests on mechanism plus clinical experience, and that is the basis physicians prescribe SHRED on. But the accurate framing is "described in animal research, with pharmacology characterised in people for two of the four components," not "proven for body composition."

• That four peptides together do more than any one alone. No study has compared the blend with its components.
• Any amount of fat loss or weight change in humans. The one component tested for that at scale did not show it against placebo.
• A timeline in humans. Timelines given by prescribers are clinical experience, not trial endpoints.
• What subcutaneous AOD-9604 or injected MOTS-c does in people, because neither has human exposure data by that route.
• Long-term safety over years of continuous use, which is part of why a physician reviews each refill and commonly wants bloodwork first.
• Efficacy for any condition as an FDA-approved treatment. Neither SHRED nor any component is approved for anything.

Both were placed in Category 2 of the FDA's 503A bulk drug substances list — the category for substances flagged as presenting potential significant safety risks — in 2023. On 4 December 2024 the FDA's Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee voted against recommending them for the 503A Bulks List: 0 in favour and 12 against for AOD-9604 (free base and acetate, taken together), and 0 in favour and 13 against for CJC-1295 free base, with the acetate and DAC forms voted down by similar margins. The FDA's own review had recommended against inclusion, citing limited safety data and, for AOD-9604, the failed obesity programme.

The nominations were subsequently withdrawn by the nominators, and the FDA's current Category 2 page lists AOD-9604 and CJC-1295 under "bulk drug substances nominated but withdrawn" rather than in the active Category 2 table. Neither has been placed on the 503A Bulks List, and the FDA has not issued a final rule on either.

On 29 October 2024 the same committee considered ipamorelin (free base and acetate) for growth hormone deficiency and postoperative ileus and voted 0 in favour, 12 against, with 1 abstention, against recommending it for the 503A Bulks List. Members cited a lack of data supporting safety and efficacy for those uses; one noted that a drug being widely prescribed does not by itself show it is safe and effective. The 503A nomination was later withdrawn. Ipamorelin acetate does remain in Category 2 under the separate 503B policy governing outsourcing facilities, where the FDA cites immunogenicity questions and the adverse events in the intravenous postoperative-ileus trial.

On 15 April 2026 the FDA announced the removal of twelve peptides from Category 2, effective about a week later, and MOTS-c was among them, alongside BPC-157, KPV, TB-500 and injectable GHK-Cu. On 23 July 2026 the committee considered MOTS-c for obesity and osteoporosis and voted 7 in favour, 5 against, with 2 abstentions, to recommend adding it to the 503A Bulks List. FDA's own scientists had recommended against inclusion, citing the absence of any human data; the committee voted the other way.

A committee vote is a recommendation, not a decision. The FDA issues its own determination through rulemaking, and that determination is still pending as of September 2026.

None of the four components is on the 503A Bulks List. Three — AOD-9604, CJC-1295 and ipamorelin — were recommended against by the advisory committee in late 2024, have had their nominations withdrawn, and are no longer in the active 503A Category 2 table, with no final rule issued. MOTS-c was removed from Category 2 in April 2026 and recommended for the positive list in July 2026, with the FDA's determination pending. None is an FDA-approved drug product, and compounded medications never are — they are prepared by a licensed pharmacy to a physician's prescription, not approved as manufactured products.

Most people notice little or nothing. Injection-site tenderness is the most commonly reported observation. Some describe sleeping more deeply, which prescribers attribute to the growth hormone secretagogue pair; noticing nothing in this window is normal.

This is the window one vial covers. Prescribers describe it as the period in which sleep and recovery observations, where they occur, become consistent rather than occasional. Nobody should expect a visible change in body composition in four weeks, and any provider suggesting otherwise is overselling it.

Where body composition changes at all, prescribers describe it as a slow, second-and-third-vial proposition inseparable from training, protein intake and sleep. No trial isolates the blend's contribution from those, and the one component tested at scale for weight loss did not separate from placebo. Follow-up bloodwork — glucose and IGF-1 are the usual markers — is how a physician judges whether the course is doing anything measurable.

There is no withdrawal and no rebound described for any component. Growth hormone secretagogues stop acting when they stop being taken; any change in body composition persists only to the extent the underlying habits do.

The directions are written in millilitres and in insulin-syringe units because that is what you can actually read off the barrel. 0.25 mL is 25 units on a U-100 syringe. Because the four are in fixed proportion, every dose delivers the same split: 0.5 mg AOD-9604, 0.3 mg CJC-1295, 0.5 mg ipamorelin and 0.5 mg MOTS-c. If your directions and syringe markings appear to disagree, ask before dosing.

Subcutaneous means into the fat layer, not the muscle. Abdomen and thigh are the usual sites, rotated so the same spot is not used repeatedly. Some prescribers direct a consistent time of day, often evening, because growth hormone secretagogues are typically timed around the body's own overnight pulse. Your directions will say.

20 doses at five per week is four weeks of weekday dosing, which is why refills run on a 28-day cycle. Weekends off is part of the schedule, not a missed dose. One vial per fill, always — not a stockpile.

Refrigerated, and it ships that way in insulated packaging with ice packs. Beyond-use dating is on the label; a multi-peptide vial is not something to keep past it.

The only difference is the GHRH analogue. PHYSIQ uses tesamorelin where SHRED uses CJC-1295, with the same AOD-9604, ipamorelin and MOTS-c. Tesamorelin is the FDA-approved GHRH analogue, with randomised trials in HIV-associated abdominal fat; CJC-1295 has human pharmacology but no outcome trials. A physician who wants the better-evidenced GHRH signal will usually prefer PHYSIQ.

The two-peptide preparation is the growth hormone secretagogue pair on its own, without the fat-metabolism fragment and the mitochondrial component. For sleep, recovery and a straightforward growth hormone goal it is the more targeted prescription. The TITAN blend and ASCEND blend build on the same pair in other directions.

Not the same category of evidence. Semaglutide and tirzepatide are FDA-approved actives — Wegovy and Zepbound are the approved brands for chronic weight management — with large randomised trials measuring weight change. Compounded versions are not themselves FDA approved, but the active has that trial record. SHRED has no outcome trial for any component. Patients do take a growth hormone secretagogue alongside a GLP-1; whether that makes sense for you is your physician's decision. SHRED is a vial only, so there is no Pen format to compare.