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Article: Little big drug. (human growth hormone)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- October 6, 1990
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1990 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Little big drug
WHEN sceitnists learnt to mass-produce human growth hormone (HGH) with genetic engineering, they thought they had found a potential blockbuster. In 1985, when it was launched, the HGH was sold only to combat dwarfism; but it was thought it could be put to a wide range of uses, promoting growth and perhaps slowing aging. The reason for this optimism was that in nature the hormone is used throughout life and works on all sorts of tissues. Now questions are being been raised about the hormone, its long-term effects and the rationale behind some of its possible uses.
Apart from its effect on childhood growth, nobody knows precisely what the ...