The products are nearly identical in composition, efficacy, and cost, varying primarily in the formulations and delivery devices.Somapacitan-beco (Sogroya) is first once-per week subcutaneous human growth hormone (hGH) therapy that was approved in the United States. It was approved for medical use in the United States in August 2020. Terminology
Growth hormone (GH l) is also called somatotropin (British: somatotrophin). The human form of growth hormone is known as human growth hormone, or hGH (ovine growth hormone, or sheep growth hormone, is abbreviated oGH). GH can refer either to the natural hormone produced by the pituitary (somatotropin), or biosynthetic GH for therapy.Cadaver growth hormone is the term for GH extracted from the pituitary glands of human cadavers between 1960 and 1985 for therapy of deficient children. In the U.S., cadaver GH, also referred to as NPA growth hormone, was provided by the National Pituitary Agency, and by other national programs and commercial firms as well. In 1985 it was associated with the development of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, and was withdrawn from use.RHGH (rHGH, rhGH) refers to recombinant human growth hormone, that is, somatropin (INN). Its amino acid sequence is identical with that of endogenous human GH.It is coincidental that RHGH also refers to rhesus monkey GH (RhGH), using the accepted naming convention of Rh for rhesus.
The medical literature of the decade contains hundreds of reports of small trials of GH use in nearly every type of growth failure and shortness imaginable. In most cases, the growth responses were modest. For conditions with a large enough potential market, more rigorous trials were sponsored by pharmaceutical companies that were making growth hormone to achieve approval to market for those specific indications. Turner syndrome and chronic kidney failure were the first of these “nonGH-deficient causes of shortness” to receive FDA approval for GH treatment, and Prader-Willi syndrome and intrauterine growth retardation followed. Similar expansion of use occurred in Europe.One obvious potential market was adult GH deficiency. By the mid-1990s, several GH companies had sponsored or publicized research into the quality of life of adults with severe GH deficiency. Most were people having been treated with GH in childhood for severe deficiency. Although the injections are painless, many of them had been happy to leave injections behind as they reached final heights in the low-normal range. However, as adults in their 30s and 40s, these people, who had been children with growth hormone deficiency, were now adults with growth hormone deficiency and had more than their share of common adult problems: reduced physical, mental, and social energy, excess adipose and diminished muscle, diminished libido, poor bone density, higher cholesterol levels, and higher rates of cardiovascular disease. Research trials soon confirmed that a few months of GH could improve nearly all of these parameters. However, despite marketing efforts, most GH-deficient adults remain untreated.