Ipamorelin research peptide capsules, 60 per bottle

Last reviewed: 16 October 2026 · sources and prices checked by Free Muscle.

Key facts

Where to buy ipamorelin in the UK: what to check

Whichever seller you consider, check these five points:

1. Stated strength and capsule count. Here: 60 capsules per bottle.
2. A batch number on the pack. Here: printed on every bottle we ship.
3. A certificate for that batch from a named independent laboratory. Here: Janoshik Analytical; we email the certificate for your batch on request.
4. Tracked delivery in plain packaging and a written returns policy. Here: every order ships in plain packaging, UK delivery is free and tracked, EU delivery usually takes 3 to 7 working days after dispatch, and unopened items can be returned within 30 days.
5. Sold for laboratory research only, to adults aged 18 or over. Here: no instructions for human use are given.

Our UK supplier checklist explains each point, and How we test sets out what a certificate does and does not prove.

Research compounds sold by Free Muscle are supplied for laboratory research use only and are not for human consumption. They are not authorised as medicines by the MHRA, EMA or FDA, are not food supplements, and are sold only to adults aged 18 or over. Nothing on this page is medical or dosing advice.

Ipamorelin in the UK: buying, legal status and what to check

Can ipamorelin be bought legally in the UK, and in what form? Ipamorelin is not a controlled drug in the UK, but it is not a licensed medicine either: it holds no MHRA marketing authorisation, it was never taken through to approval by its developer, and it is not an authorised food supplement or novel food. That means it cannot lawfully be sold for human consumption, and any UK seller describing it as a supplement, offering dosing instructions or promising results is making a medicinal claim for an unlicensed product. Free Muscle supplies ipamorelin as a research compound to adults aged 18 or over, for laboratory use. Our ipamorelin research guide sets out the UK, EU and US position in more detail.

A listing worth trusting shows the compound name, the quantity per capsule as measured rather than as printed on a label, the capsule count, a batch number that also appears on the pack, and a certificate of analysis for that batch from a laboratory the seller does not own. It ships in plain, tracked packaging from a named seller and it does not publish "protocols". This listing states 60 capsules per bottle, every Free Muscle batch is assayed by Janoshik Analytical, the certificate for the batch in hand is sent by email on request, and UK delivery is free, tracked and plain-packaged, with weekday orders received before 2pm processed on the same working day. Parcels to the EU arrive in 3 to 7 working days, and unopened items are accepted back within 30 days (see shipping and our guarantee).

Capsules compared with pens, vials and other forms

Every published human study of ipamorelin used intravenous infusion, and most clinical work on the wider growth hormone secretagogue peptides used injection. Gobburu and colleagues (1999) gave intravenous infusions to healthy volunteers and measured a terminal half-life of about two hours with a single, short episode of growth hormone release. A pentapeptide swallowed as a capsule meets stomach acid and digestive proteases before it can be absorbed, and what survives crosses the gut wall poorly. Drucker's 2020 review of oral peptide therapeutics explains why even the few oral peptides that have reached the clinic needed permeation enhancers, inhibitors of gut enzymes or cell-penetrating carriers, none of which has been described for ipamorelin. Lyophilised vials require reconstitution with sterile water, accurate volumetric handling and cold storage once mixed; pre-filled pens are a pharmaceutical presentation that no licensed ipamorelin product exists to fill. A capsule offers a laboratory a fixed, assayed quantity of dry material in a sealed container, with no reconstitution step. It does not change the pharmacology of oral peptide absorption and no efficacy is claimed for it.

Ipamorelin compared with CJC-1295, tesamorelin, sermorelin and MK-677

Ipamorelin is most often compared with CJC-1295, tesamorelin, sermorelin and MK-677. The pharmacology splits into two groups. Ipamorelin and MK-677 act at the ghrelin receptor (GHS-R1a) and are called growth hormone secretagogues; CJC-1295, tesamorelin and sermorelin are analogues of growth hormone releasing hormone (GHRH) acting at the GHRH receptor. Both pathways converge on the pituitary. Ipamorelin is a five-amino-acid peptide with a two-hour half-life in the infusion study; MK-677 is a non-peptide small molecule that is orally active and was trialled for up to two years. CJC-1295 is a GHRH analogue modified to bind albumin; Teichman and colleagues (2006) measured a half-life of 5.8 to 8.1 days after subcutaneous injection in healthy adults, with growth hormone raised two- to ten-fold for six days or more and IGF-1 raised for nine to eleven days. Tesamorelin is the only member of either group to become a licensed medicine: Falutz and colleagues (2007) randomised 412 people with HIV-associated abdominal fat to daily subcutaneous tesamorelin or placebo for 26 weeks and reported a 15.2 per cent fall in visceral adipose tissue against a 5 per cent rise on placebo, with more withdrawals for adverse events in the treated group. It is approved in the United States for that indication and is not licensed in the UK. Sermorelin was formerly licensed in the United States and has since been discontinued there. Neither ipamorelin nor CJC-1295 is licensed anywhere. Every compound in both groups is prohibited at all times under section S2 of the WADA list. Related listings are in the peptides collection.

What the published research reports

Raun and colleagues (1998) characterised ipamorelin in rat pituitary cells, anaesthetised rats and conscious pigs, reporting growth hormone release similar in potency and efficacy to GHRP-6 and, in pigs, ACTH and cortisol levels no different from those after GHRH, even at doses more than 200-fold above those needed for half-maximal growth hormone release. GHRP-6 and GHRP-2 raised both hormones in the same model. Gobburu and colleagues (1999) gave 15-minute infusions at five dose levels to healthy men, eight at each level, and found dose-proportional pharmacokinetics, a terminal half-life of about two hours, and larger between-person variability in growth hormone response than in drug exposure. Beck and colleagues (2014) ran the only published efficacy trial in patients, a multicentre double-blind phase 2 study of twice-daily intravenous ipamorelin for up to seven days in 117 adults recovering from bowel resection: time to a first tolerated solid meal was 25.3 hours against 32.6 hours on placebo, a difference that was not statistically significant, and no secondary endpoint differed either. On side effects, treatment-emergent adverse events occurred in 87.5 per cent of the ipamorelin group and 94.8 per cent on placebo, and the drug was described as well tolerated over up to seven days of treatment; the authors noted the study was small and enrolled patients with a broad range of underlying conditions. Sigalos and Pastuszak (2018), reviewing growth hormone secretagogues as a class, found few long-term controlled studies, a recurring concern about raised blood glucose through reduced insulin sensitivity, and a need for long-term safety data, including cancer incidence and mortality. None of this is a claim about the capsules listed here.

Reading the certificate of analysis for this product

A Janoshik certificate for an ipamorelin batch shows identity, purity, quantity and provenance. Identity is typically confirmed by mass spectrometry, matching the measured mass to the expected mass of the pentapeptide, which distinguishes it from other growth hormone releasing peptides such as GHRP-2 or GHRP-6, and from look-alikes such as Gly-ipamorelin, which carries one extra glycine and has been found by doping-control laboratories in black-market products (Krug 2018). Purity is a percentage by HPLC of intact peptide against related impurities. Quantity is the milligram content found per capsule, to be compared with the label. The batch number and test date tie the certificate to the bottle. A certificate missing any of these, or showing a product name without a batch number, is a marketing document rather than a batch record. Request the certificate by email quoting the batch number on the pack. Our article on reading a certificate of analysis explains each field in more detail.

Detection, sport and testing

Ipamorelin is named explicitly in section S2 of the WADA Prohibited List as an example of a growth hormone secretagogue, and is prohibited at all times, in and out of competition. Anti-doping laboratories include growth hormone secretagogues and releasing peptides in their urine screening. In an anti-doping study in which one volunteer received ipamorelin nasally, the peptide was extensively metabolised, and its (1-4) free acid fragment was still present in urine after the intact peptide had gone; in the authors' view, how long it stays detectable depends on each person's metabolism, on the preparation and on the route (Semenistaya 2015). With a single volunteer, no general detection window has been established. UK Anti-Doping applies the WADA list, so the prohibition covers every athlete tested in the UK.

Storage, stability and handling

Short peptides in dry form are reasonably stable, but they hydrolyse and oxidise faster with heat, moisture and light. Keep the bottle sealed in a cool, dry, dark place, do not decant capsules, and avoid repeated refrigeration of an opened bottle because condensation introduces moisture. Handle with clean, dry gloves in a laboratory setting, record the batch number on any sub-sample, and dispose of unused material as laboratory waste. Keep out of reach of children and pets.

Glossary

• GHS-R1a: the growth hormone secretagogue receptor, the target of ghrelin and of ipamorelin.
• Growth hormone secretagogue: a compound that triggers pituitary growth hormone release, peptide or non-peptide.
• GHRH analogue: a modified growth hormone releasing hormone such as CJC-1295, tesamorelin or sermorelin.
• Pentapeptide: a chain of five amino acids, the structure of ipamorelin.
• ACTH and cortisol: the stress-axis hormones that GHRP-6 and GHRP-2 raised and ipamorelin did not significantly raise in pigs.
• Terminal half-life: the time for blood concentration to halve during the final elimination phase.
• Postoperative ileus: the temporary halt of gut motility after surgery, the indication in the only published patient trial.
• LC-MS: liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry, used to confirm identity.
• HPLC purity: the percentage of a sample that is the intact molecule, by chromatographic separation.

Related compounds and reading

• Ipamorelin collection
• MK-677 (ibutamoren)
• IGF-1 LR3
• Research peptides
• Do oral peptides actually work?
• MK-677: what the research says
• Ipamorelin research guide: trials, side effects and UK status
• What is Janoshik Analytical?
• How we test

References

1. Raun K, et al. Ipamorelin, the first selective growth hormone secretagogue. Eur J Endocrinol. 1998;139(5):552-561. PMID: 9849822.
2. Gobburu JV, et al. Pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modeling of ipamorelin, a growth hormone releasing peptide, in human volunteers. Pharm Res. 1999;16(9):1412-1416. PMID: 10496658.
3. Beck DE, et al. Prospective, randomized, controlled, proof-of-concept study of the Ghrelin mimetic ipamorelin for the management of postoperative ileus in bowel resection patients. Int J Colorectal Dis. 2014;29(12):1527-1534. PMID: 25331030.
4. Sigalos JT, Pastuszak AW. The Safety and Efficacy of Growth Hormone Secretagogues. Sex Med Rev. 2018;6(1):45-53. PMID: 28400207.
5. Teichman SL, et al. Prolonged stimulation of growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor I secretion by CJC-1295, a long-acting analog of GH-releasing hormone, in healthy adults. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2006;91(3):799-805. PMID: 16352683.
6. Falutz J, et al. Metabolic effects of a growth hormone-releasing factor in patients with HIV. N Engl J Med. 2007;357(23):2359-2370. PMID: 18057338.
7. Drucker DJ. Advances in oral peptide therapeutics. Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2020;19(4):277-289. PMID: 31848464.
8. Krug O, et al. Analysis of new growth promoting black market products. Growth Horm IGF Res. 2018;41:1-6. PMID: 29864719.
9. Semenistaya E, et al. Determination of growth hormone releasing peptides metabolites in human urine after nasal administration of GHRP-1, GHRP-2, GHRP-6, Hexarelin, and Ipamorelin. Drug Test Anal. 2015;7(10):919-925. PMID: 25869809.

Research compounds sold by Free Muscle are supplied for laboratory research use only and are not for human consumption. They are not authorised as medicines by the MHRA, EMA or FDA, are not food supplements, and are sold only to adults aged 18 or over. Nothing on this page is medical or dosing advice.