Sandostatin^® is an analogue of somatostatin, an important regulatory peptide that works like a chemical switch in the body, delivering 'stop' signals to cells producing excess amounts of growth hormone and IGF-I.

IN early 1979, a chemist called Wilfried Bauer synthesized a compound with the research number SMS 201-995. The molecule was given the generic name octreotide, reflecting its structure with eight amino acids, and later the trade name, Sandostatin^®.

Subcutaneous Sandostatin^® was launched in 1988, and in 1991 it received the Prix Gallen, an accolade widely viewed as the pharmaceutical industry's Nobel Prize. Improving on the success of the subcutaneous formulation, the long-acting formulation, Sandostatin^® LAR^®, was launched in 1997. This provides patients with a more convenient treatment option via a single injection every 4 weeks.

In addition to improving patients lives with acromegaly and NET, Sandostatin^® is used to treat other conditions for which there was previously no treatment. For example, VIPomas, gastrointestinal tumors that are sometimes called 'pancreatic cholera' because their main clinical feature is profuse diarrhea, were virtually untreatable until the introduction of Sandostatin^® therapy.

At Novartis, improving patient lives is what really counts. Some two decades after reaching the market Sandostatin^®, now the most prescribed and most published somatostatin analogue, remains a standard therapy for the treatment of acromegaly and NET.

Novartis has a proven track record of researching and improving the management of rear diseases, and Sandostatin^® LAR^® is setting new standards of care in the treatment of acromegaly and gastro-entero-pancreatic neuroendocrine (GEP NE) tumors. In addition to being the most published, most prescribed somatostatin analogue-to date, octreotide has been listed in more than 5,000 scientific publications-Sandostatin^® LAR^® is the only somatostatin analogue with formulations that span more than a decade of clinical experience.