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Tesamorelin vs sermorelin
Tesamorelin is FDA-approved to reduce excess belly fat in adults with HIV-related lipodystrophy. Sermorelin’s two Geref approvals were withdrawn in 2009. FDA later found that neither product was withdrawn for safety or effectiveness reasons. Their studies cover different uses and do not show which is better for healthy adults.
Source for this answer
Source: Sources: Egrifta labels, FDA’s Geref withdrawal notice and published sermorelin trials
Source: Sources: Egrifta labels, FDA’s Geref withdrawal notice and published sermorelin trials
Medically reviewed by Jennifer Montecillo, MD · non-practicing medical reviewerReviewed 2026-08-13View sources
How Tesamorelin and Sermorelin differ
Compare approval, doses and what the studies measured. Gaps in the evidence are shown alongside the known differences.
| Question | Tesamorelin | Sermorelin |
|---|---|---|
| Is it approved today | Yes. Sold as Egrifta SV and Egrifta WR | No. Both approvals were withdrawn on 18 June 2009 |
| What it is | A growth hormone-releasing factor analog | The first 29 amino acids of growth hormone-releasing hormone |
| What it is approved to treat | Excess belly fat in adults with HIV-related lipodystrophy | No current approved use. Geref was approved for pituitary testing and growth failure in children with growth hormone deficiency |
| Was either ever approved for aging or body shape in healthy adultsThe same for both | No | No |
| What the label says about weight | Not approved for weight loss. The label describes its effect on body weight as neutral | No current approved label establishes a weight-loss use |
| The dose | Egrifta SV: 1.4 mg once daily. Egrifta WR: 1.28 mg once daily. Both are injected under the skin of the abdomen and are not interchangeable | No current approved label dose. The cited studies used 30 mcg per kg daily in children, and 0.5 or 1 mg twice daily in older men, under the skin |
| Fixed dose or based on body weight | Fixed for each product: 1.4 mg for SV or 1.28 mg for WR | Based on body weight in the children’s study; fixed amounts in the older-men study |
| How long the cited studies ran | An initial 26 weeks, followed by a 26-week extension in the Egrifta trials | Up to twelve months in children. Older men had two 14-day treatment periods, with a 14-day break between them |
| What the adult studies measured | Belly fat, IGF-1 and blood sugar during the initial 26-week phase | Hormone levels after each 14-day treatment period. The study did not establish benefits for body shape, strength or sleep |
| Product forms | Egrifta SV: 2 mg per vial. Egrifta WR: 11.6 mg per vial. The two have different doses, mixing instructions and storage limits | Geref is discontinued. Its former label does not describe every compounded preparation |
| Does either have a boxed warningThe same for both | No | No |
| Strength of evidence | FDA label | limited human data |
| Doses covered in the guide | 1 sourced dose entry | 4 sourced dose entries |
What matters first
- Direct head-to-head trial
- None published
- Tesamorelin record
- FDA label; 1 sourced dose entry
- Sermorelin record
- limited human data; 4 sourced dose entries
Has anyone tested Tesamorelin against Sermorelin directly?
No direct trial has been published. Separate studies cannot establish which works better or causes fewer side effects.
The studies involved different people and ran for different lengths of time. A difference in their results could come from those study conditions or from the drugs themselves.
Read each result with its study population, dose and follow-up period. The findings below explain what each study can tell us and where the comparison stops.
7Comparison details
What has been reported to the FDA about each?
Tesamorelin: 3,517 reports. Sermorelin: 59 reports. Both were read from FDA’s side-effect report system on 2026-08-17.
| Name searched | Reports filed | Product names in the matched reports |
|---|---|---|
| Tesamorelin | 3,517 reports | EGRIFTA · EGRIFTA SV · EGRIFTA WR |
| Sermorelin | 59 reports | SERMORELIN · SERMORELIN ACETATE · SERMORELIN ACETATE. |
What Tesamorelin reports are about
- Product dose omission issue — 299 reports, 8.5% of Tesamorelin reports
- Arthralgia — 268 reports, 7.6% of Tesamorelin reports
- Injection site pain — 255 reports, 7.3% of Tesamorelin reports
- Drug ineffective — 191 reports, 5.4% of Tesamorelin reports
- Weight increased — 189 reports, 5.4% of Tesamorelin reports
Sermorelin has too few reports to publish a useful breakdown here. Ranking reactions from so few reports could suggest a pattern the data cannot support.
A smaller number of FDA reports does not mean a drug is safer. The system does not tell us how many people took each product or how many reactions went unreported.
Tesamorelin is reported under approved product names, while sermorelin has no current approved product. Names and reporting practices can affect what each search finds.
Use these reports to see what has been reported, not to calculate or compare the chance of a side effect.
Tesamorelin: patient.drug.openfda.generic_name:"tesamorelin" OR patient.drug.medicinalproduct:"tesamorelin" OR patient.drug.openfda.brand_name:"EGRIFTA" OR patient.drug.medicinalproduct:"EGRIFTA" · Sermorelin: patient.drug.medicinalproduct:"sermorelin"
Why Geref’s approval ended matters
FDA approved Geref in December 1990 to test whether the pituitary gland could release growth hormone. A second approval in September 1997 covered growth failure in children with growth hormone deficiency.
EMD Serono discontinued both products in 2008. Their approvals were withdrawn on 18 June 2009. FDA later determined that neither had been withdrawn for safety or effectiveness reasons.
The 2013 notice allows FDA to approve generic versions if they meet the other legal requirements. It does not approve a compounded product or a new use for sermorelin.
Tesamorelin has current product labels for Egrifta SV and Egrifta WR. Each label specifies its own dose, mixing instructions and storage limits.
Reducing belly fat is different from losing weight
Egrifta is approved to reduce excess abdominal fat in adults with HIV-related lipodystrophy. That does not make it a weight-loss medicine: both labels describe its effect on body weight as neutral.
This approval is specific to that condition. It does not establish a benefit for changing body shape in otherwise healthy adults.
Sermorelin has no current approved weight-loss use. The cited older-men study measured hormone changes; it did not establish a weight-loss benefit.
The studies involved different people and different uses
Both drugs act at the growth hormone-releasing hormone receptor in the pituitary gland. Sharing a target does not make their study results directly comparable.
The Egrifta trials enrolled adults with HIV and lipodystrophy. During the first 26 weeks, the hormone IGF-1 rose above two standard deviations from the age-adjusted norm in 47 in 100 treated people, and above three in 36 in 100. HbA1c, a blood-sugar measure, reached 6.5% or higher in 5 in 100, versus 1 in 100 on placebo. The label calls for monitoring of IGF-1 and glucose.
Those figures came from the earlier Egrifta formulation at 2 mg daily. The current labels use those trials to support SV and WR; they were not a trial of those two products against each other.
The cited sermorelin study involved healthy men with an average age of about 68. Each took 0.5 mg and 1 mg twice daily in separate 14-day periods. Only the higher dose produced a statistically significant rise in growth hormone and IGF-I from baseline. Phosphate rose, while fasting blood sugar, blood pressure and blood tests showed no significant changes.
These results describe different treatment periods and populations. They cannot establish a safety or benefit advantage for either drug.
Ipamorelin is not the third option in this comparison
Ipamorelin works at the ghrelin receptor. Tesamorelin and sermorelin work at the growth hormone-releasing hormone receptor. These are different targets, so ipamorelin cannot be described as simply a stronger or weaker version of either.
The ipamorelin record cites two phase 2 trials in people recovering from bowel surgery. Doses were given into a vein, and neither trial beat placebo on its main measure. Those findings do not compare it with tesamorelin or sermorelin.
What about “Sermorelin vs tesamorelin”?
Reversing the names asks the same question. The differences and study limits above apply either way.
Related questions include “Tesamorelin peptide vs sermorelin”. Check the molecule and formulation named in each study before applying its findings to a product with a similar name.
More about each compound
Each compound guide covers its doses, reported side effects and approval status in more detail.
Tesamorelin FDA label
Sermorelin limited human data
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How strong the evidence is for each part of Tesamorelin vs sermorelin
- EGRIFTA SV (tesamorelin) for injection — FDA-approved Prescribing Information (DailyMed SPL)retrieved 2026-08-12FDA label
- EGRIFTA WR (tesamorelin) for injection — FDA-approved Prescribing Information (DailyMed SPL)retrieved 2026-09-19FDA label
- Determination That GEREF (Sermorelin Acetate) Injection, 0.5 Milligrams Base/Vial and 1.0 Milligrams Base/Vial, and 0.05 Milligrams Base/Amp, Were Not Withdrawn From Sale for Reasons of Safety or Effectiveness — 78 FR 14095–14096 (4 March 2013)retrieved 2026-08-12FDA label
- Thorner M, et al. Once daily subcutaneous growth hormone-releasing hormone therapy accelerates growth in growth hormone-deficient children during the first year of therapy (Geref International Study Group). J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1996;81(3):1189-96retrieved 2026-08-12Human trial
- Corpas E, Harman SM, Piñeyro MA, Roberson R, Blackman MR. Growth hormone (GH)-releasing hormone-(1-29) twice daily reverses the decreased GH and insulin-like growth factor-I levels in old men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1992;75(2):530-5retrieved 2026-08-12Human trial
- NCT00324064 — Sexually Dimorphic Effects of GHRH in Adult Growth Hormone Testing (protocol: GHRH [Geref] 1 mcg/kg intravenous push, followed by arginine)retrieved 2026-08-12Human trial
- Dominikowski A, Rękoś Z, Olejarz M, Szczepanek-Parulska E, Domin R, Ruchała M. The emerging landscape of performance-enhancing peptides modulating GH-IGF1 axis: bridging the gap between clinical evidence and patient self-administration. Front Endocrinol 2026 — tabulates self-reported online dosing patterns beside the clinical doses, stating the reported values must not be read as clinically validated, regulatory-approved or saferetrieved 2026-08-12indirect evidence
- Lanes R, Carrillo E; Venezuelan Collaborative Study Group. Long-term therapy with a single daily subcutaneous dose of growth hormone releasing hormone (1-29) in prepubertal growth hormone deficient children. J Pediatr Endocrinol 1994;7(4):303-8retrieved 2026-08-12Human trial
- Dominikowski A, Rękoś Z, Olejarz M, Szczepanek-Parulska E, Domin R, Ruchała M. The emerging landscape of performance-enhancing peptides modulating GH-IGF1 axis: bridging the gap between clinical evidence and patient self-administration. Front Endocrinol 2026;17 — Table 1, sermorelin safety-signal rowretrieved 2026-08-12limited human data