Inpharma 1566 - 2 Dec 2006

■ Somatropin [human growth hormone] therapyreduces the abnormal central fat accumulation inpatients with somatotropin (growth hormone)deficiency, report researchers from Japan. In their24-week, multicentre, randomised study,* 61 Japanesepatients received somatropin 0.003 mg/kg/day for4 weeks, then 0.006 mg/kg/day until week 12 andfinally 0.012 mg/kg/day for the remainder of the study(maximum daily dose 1.0mg; n = 30), or placebo. At24 weeks, somatropin recipients had a significantlygreater percentage reduction in trunk fat frombaseline, compared to placebo (–3.4% vs +0.4%),while the mean total fat mass of patients in thesomatropin group was significantly reduced by 2.8%,compared with 0.0% in the placebo group.* funded by Sumitomo Pharmaceutical, Japan

Chihara K, et al. Effect of growth hormone treatment on trunk fataccumulation in adult GH-deficient Japanese patients: a randomised, placebo-controlled trial. Current Medical Research and Opinion 22: 1973-1979, No. 10,Oct 2006 801056438

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Inpharma 2 Dec 2006 No. 15661173-8324/10/1566-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved