Čes-slov Pediat 2024, 79(89):S20-S24 | DOI: 10.55095/CSPediatrie2024/053

Long-acting growth hormone – the first year real-life experienceOriginal Papers

Jan Lebl¹, Irena Aldhoon Hainerová², Jana Černá³, Eva El-Labibidi², Stanislava Koloušková¹, Ivana Kotvalová⁴, Olga Magnová⁵, Dana Novotná⁵, Barbora Obermannová¹, Renata Pomahačová⁶, Štěpánka Průhová¹, Ondřej Souček¹, Jiří Strnadel³, Marta Šnajderová¹, Zdeněk Šumník¹, Jiřina Zapletalová⁷

¹ Pediatrická klinika, 2. lékařská fakulta, Univerzita Karlova, Fakultní nemocnice v Motole, Praha

² Klinika dětí a dorostu, 3. lékařská fakulta, Univerzita Karlova, Fakultní nemocnice Královské Vinohrady, Praha

³ Dětská klinika, Lékařská fakulta, Ostravská univerzita, Fakultní nemocnice Ostrava

⁴ Dětská klinika, Lékařská fakulta, Univerzita Karlova, Fakultní nemocnice Hradec Králové

⁵ Pediatrická klinika, Lékařská fakulta, Masarykova univerzita, Fakultní nemocnice Brno

⁶ Dětská klinika, Lékařská fakulta, Univerzita Karlova, Fakultní nemocnice Plzeň

⁷ Dětská klinika, Lékařská fakulta, Univerzita Palackého, Fakultní nemocnice Olomouc

Somatrogon (Ngenla®) is the first long-acting growth hormone marketed in the Czech Republic. It is administered subcutaneously once weekly and is approved for use in growth hormone deficient patients aged from 3 to 18 years. The treatment costs are similar to daily growth hormone and a full reimbursement is guaranteed in centers for growth hormone therapy. Within 2023, the first year of a full availability of somatrogon, treatment was initiated in 166 pediatric patients. Of these, 106 (64%) were transferred from daily injections, and 60 (36%) were newly initiated. Children with newly initiated treatment were aged 7.2 years (median; range 3.0-14.0), and included 24 girls (40%) and 36 boys (60%). Out of 106 patients transferred from daily treatment, 26 were girls and 80 boys (25:75%) and their age was 10.8 years (median; range 3.0-18.0). The duration of previous daily therapy was 5.0 years (median; range 0.5-16.0). As expected, the patients transferred from previous daily injections were older than those with a newly initiated somatrogon therapy (p<0.0001). Boys were overrepresented among the transferred patients even if compared with the newly initiated patients (p<0.05). In previous controlled clinical trials, the patients and their parents confirmed a lower treatment burden when on somatrogon if compared to daily growth hormone. Therefore, long-acting growth hormone is expected to increase treatment adherence, to improve quality of life, and to contribute to better treatment outcomes. Currently, this journey has just started; therefore, we aim to collect the early real-life somatrogon experience.

Keywords: growth hormone, somatrogon, growth hormone deficiency, real-life experience

Accepted: September 25, 2024; Published: December 1, 2024  Show citation