The story

Tesamorelin was developed by Theratechnologies in Montreal, Canada, in the 1990s and 2000s, coded TH9507. Julian Falutz and colleagues in Montreal showed in 2007 that 2 mg a day shrank visceral fat by about 15 percent in 26 weeks while leaving fat under the skin alone. It became the medicine Egrifta in 2010. Later work by Takara Stanley and Steven Grinspoon in Boston showed it also cuts liver fat, and Laura Baker's group in Seattle found it sharpened thinking in older adults.