FDA OKs Growth Hormone for Short Kids

Children who are healthy but abnormally short will be able to have injections of growth hormone in hopes of gaining 1 to 3 inches of height, the Food and Drug Administration said Friday.

The drug, called Humatrope, is not for normal kids yearning for a few extra inches, the FDA cautioned. It’s for the shortest of children.

Drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. counts some 400,000 such children ages 7 to 15, but predicts that only about 10% ultimately would receive growth hormone because of tight restrictions it plans on eligibility, and because many families simply won’t want to endure up to six shots a week for years.

“This is not cosmetic use,” FDA endocrinology chief Dr. David Orloff said.

Growth hormone has been used for 16 years to treat children who are extremely short because of growth-stunting diseases. Some 200,000 children worldwide have taken it.

Lilly sought FDA approval to market Humatrope for children who don’t have those medical conditions but are abnormally short anyway: boys predicted to be shorter than 5 feet 3 as adults, and girls shorter than 4 feet 11.