Recombinant human growth hormone
Hormona de crecimiento humana recombinante
- Date
- 1979-1985 · confidence high
- Place
- Genentech, South San Francisco, California, United States
- Credited to
- Genentech (David Goeddel, Peter Seeburg)
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Genentech expressed human growth hormone in E. coli in 1979 and won FDA approval for Protropin in 1985. It replaced the hormone extracted from cadaver pituitaries, withdrawn that year because of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease cases.
The first expression in E. coli was the met-hGH form of 1979; Protropin (1985) was Genentech's first drug marketed without a partner.
What it led to
- therapy for growth deficiency without prion risk
- commercial model of a recombinant biopharmaceutical after insulin
- global growth hormone market (Novo, Lilly, Pfizer, LG)