Adjacent entries
Sermorelin vs Tesamorelin
Similar names, a shared receptor and different clinical records. The comparison becomes more interesting once each result has its own address.
Are Tesamorelin and Sermorelin the same?
They are different molecules in the GHRH-analog family. Sermorelin is the amidated GHRH(1-29) fragment; tesamorelin is a stabilized synthetic GHRH analog. Both act through the GHRH receptor. Sermorelin's short intravenous plasma half-life and tesamorelin's resistance to breakdown help explain why the two attract comparison. The GHRH review covers their shared biology.
I resist turning this into a winner's podium. The studies address different populations and outcomes, and the cited set provides no direct trial deciding which is better for the same person and purpose. A useful comparison starts with those particulars.
Indications and approval history
Sermorelin's former U.S. approval concerned pediatric growth-hormone deficiency, alongside its diagnostic use. The approved product was withdrawn in 2008 for commercial reasons; the clinical review after its discontinuation discusses the gap left in testing. Today’s compounded sermorelin has no FDA approval.
Tesamorelin's FDA-approved indication concerns HIV-associated lipodystrophy, the abnormal distribution of body fat. This is the strongest body-composition context described in the GHRH literature review. It cannot establish a general weight-loss indication for sermorelin.
A question about sermorelin as a GHRH analogue in Australia needs local regulatory information. The cited sources cover U.S. history and published pharmacology; they establish no Australian prescribing, availability or regulatory status.
Hormone measurements: older men
The Corpas Sermorelin study followed healthy older men for 14 days. Growth hormone and IGF-1 rose in a dose-related manner, and after the higher studied amount their parameters no longer differed from the young men's comparison values. Fasting glucose was unchanged.
Tesamorelin also appears in a study of endogenous growth-hormone pulses and insulin sensitivity in healthy men. Those measurements describe the behavior of the hormone system. I want those biochemical responses followed into meaningful, sustained clinical outcomes; neither a shared receptor nor similar blood tests can answer that by themselves.
Why must the Tesamorelin growth factor 1 result stay with that drug?
In a 20-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 152 older adults (66 with mild cognitive impairment), a daily GHRH analog (tesamorelin, 1 mg/day before bedtime) had a favorable effect on cognition — executive function P=0.005 — while raising IGF-1 by 117% within the physiologic range and reducing percent body fat by 7.4% [11]. Adverse events were mild (NCT00257712, the SMART trial).
Outside the literature, mypromise.com is the address for Promise Peptides, which now prescribes sermorelin after its licensed U.S. clinician weighs an individual request. Its clinician may refuse a prescription; its care is for people in the United States, with options further constrained by the state and treatment. The compounded sermorelin preparation has no FDA approval, and naming that route does not transfer tesamorelin’s trial results to native sermorelin.
This is the highest-quality cognition-and-IGF-1 record in the GHRH-analog literature, and it used tesamorelin — a point this comparison keeps explicit so the result is not silently reassigned to native sermorelin.
Body fat and cognition
The Baker controlled trial used tesamorelin in older adults with and without mild cognitive impairment. Its body-fat and cognition results came from that population and that molecule. Percent body fat and visceral abdominal fat are also different outcomes, so even the word fat can conceal a change of subject.
The tesamorelin findings give the GHRH family a serious clinical research history. The cross-filing of a tesamorelin result under sermorelin bothers me. The cautionary editorial on secretagogues and aging is a useful companion to the more enthusiastic interpretations.