Feature Article
GROWTH HORMONE AS A THERAPEUTIC AGENT
ROBERT M. BLIZZARD, MD
Professor, Chairman, and Director, Emeritus
Children’s Medical Center
University of Virginia School of Medicine
Charlottesville, Virginia
Twenty years have passed since recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) was approved
by the FDA for clinical use in patients with growth hormone deficiency (GHD). This
was a major breakthrough, as the only previous source of GH was naturally-occurring GH
extracted and purified, to a variable extent from human pituitaries removed at autopsy.
This human GH (hGH) was first prepared and studied by Raben1 in 1958 and was shown to
produce growth in a sexually undeveloped adolescent. The supply of hGH for investigation
and/or therapy was very limited until rhGH became available in 1985, when the supply
suddenly became unlimited and the new modern era of GH as a therapeutic agent began.
Genentech developed the recombinant techniques to synthesize rhGH, and also developed the necessary testing leading to approval by the FDA of rhGH for human use.
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Current GGH - Vol. 24 No. 1
