Parents trapped in "height anxiety": inject growth hormone into their children, costing 100,000 yuan a year
China-Singapore Jingwei Client, August 5th (Huang Chenfa, intern Lin Wansi) In the eyes of this parent, children's performance can be "chicken", vision and height can also be "chicken".
Routine exercises and food supplements can no longer satisfy parents who are eager to chase height. In order to let their children grow taller, some parents start to inject growth hormone for their children to treat short stature, and get an injection in the child's abdomen before going to bed, one injection a day or a week. It’s not uncommon to spend hundreds of thousands a year on a needle, a few hundred.
At the same time, issues such as whether the price of growth hormone is high and whether it has been abused have repeatedly caused controversy.
Destroyed half a Tesla in 15 months
"Hope to get rid of growth hormone as soon as possible"
"Do you know how much my baby grew when he was 8 years old? It only grew 7 millimeters!" When her daughter was 6 years old, Li Sha, who lives in Suzhou, Jiangsu, found that her daughter grew up slower than her peers.
After attending elementary school, her daughter who was nearly 20 centimeters shorter than her peers was often asked by passers-by, "Is she still in kindergarten?" This became Li Sha's heart knot.
Photo courtesy of growth hormone interviewee
When her daughter was nine years old, Li Sha put the first growth hormone needle into her belly.
It has been one and a half years since the needle was placed. In the first year, her daughter grew 12 cm taller, and for the following six months, she grew 0.7 cm taller each month, costing a total of 100,000 yuan.
This is a lot of money for Li Sha's family, but she thinks it's worth it.
There are many parents who have the same anxiety as Li Sha.
In November 2018, Liu Zhen took her daughter to inject growth hormone for the first time. At the time, her daughter was 8 years and 2 months old, but her height was only 120.1 cm.
For a long time, Liu Zhen thought that her daughter developed late, but she did not expect her child to have a lack of growth hormone.
"Short-acting liquid needs to be injected every day. Although it is an electronic pen-type syringe with a small needle, I am afraid that my child will reject it. Once I bite my teeth, I still choose a long-acting liquid that is twice as expensive. I only need to inject it once a week." Liu Zhen said.
In the 12th week of the injection of the long-acting liquid, the hospital recheck showed that the child’s various indicators were normal, and the child had grown 2.8 cm taller, which made Liu Zhen very excited.
However, in the third month of the injection of growth hormone, the child was found to have pseudosexual development, and the injection of the inhibitor needle was required to control the development.
Inhibition needles inhibit growth while inhibiting growth.
Starting from the second month after the injection of growth hormone and inhibitory needles, every month, Liu Zhen’s daughter’s height is only 0.8 cm, 0.5 cm, and 0.3 cm tall... The doctor advised Liu Zhen to change to short-acting liquid medicine. If the effect is sufficient, the effect may be better.
After intermittently injecting growth hormone for 15 months, Liu Zhen thought that after stopping the injection, she could “catch up” by strengthening exercise and adjusting her diet, but she was disappointed by the result.
"In the 17 months after the needle was stopped, the daughter only grew 7.5 cm tall and 141.5 cm tall." After a lapse of 1 year and 5 months, Liu Zhen and her daughter picked up the short-acting liquid again.
Excluding the cost of the medical examination, the total cost of the treatment in the past 15 months is about 130,000 yuan
. "The cost is almost half a Tesla. My wish now is to get my daughter out of growth hormone as soon as possible." Liu Zhen said.
According to a report from Xinhua News Agency on August 4, not long ago, Huang Ke, deputy director of the Endocrinology Department of the Children's Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, received a medical treatment from a mother, Ms. Wang, who was in a hurry.
Ms. Wang was worried about her son's short height, so she went to various "height promotion clinics" one after another. She spent 480,000 yuan a year, but her son only grew 1 cm tall.
From top to bottom on the right side of the picture are needleless syringes, electronic pen-type syringes, and ordinary needle syringes.
Will the price of the business supported by the "chicken baby" increase again?
The height anxiety of parents has boosted the growth of the growth hormone market.
In the A-share market, many listed companies' main business involves growth hormone.
Changchun Hi-tech’s 2020 annual report shows that there are three types of growth hormone produced by its holding subsidiary Jinsai Pharmaceutical, which are recombinant human growth hormone for injection (powder injection), recombinant human growth hormone injection (water injection), and polyethylene glycol. Alcohol recombinant human growth hormone injection (long-acting water injection) and other human growth hormone series products.
According to the research report of Guoyuan Securities on July 21, the
water injection is superior to the powder injection in terms of activity, antibody generation, safety and convenience
.
Investor survey minutes on May 21 show that Jinsai Pharmaceutical's liquid injections accounted for 70% of its revenue, long-acting liquid injections accounted for about 12% to 13%, and powder injections accounted for about 8% to 9%.
At the same time, the price of water injection is higher than that of powder injection.
Securities Times e company reported in June 2019 that the information on drug bidding showed that the
annual cost of auxin powder injection was nearly 19,000 yuan, the annual cost of water injection was about 42,000 yuan, and the annual cost of long-acting dosage forms was 196,000 yuan. Around
.
Liu Jing, who lives in a second-tier city in Jiangsu, told the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client that when he first injected his children with growth hormone, he chose Jinsai Pharmaceutical's long-acting liquid Saizen. The price of a long-acting liquid is 4,300 yuan per bottle. It can be injected three times, only once a week.
After the child grew 5 centimeters tall, Liu Jing changed the long-acting liquid to a bottle of 1,100 yuan. The Jinsai Pharmaceutical short-acting liquid, which needs to be injected once a day, can last about half a month.
According to the data released by Gaohe Investment Research Center in November 2020, Kinsey Bio has a large market share in the industry, accounting for 74%.
The report of Changchun High-tech in the first quarter of 2021 shows that Jinsai Pharmaceutical's net profit reached 878 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 70.02%.
Compared with Jinsai Pharmaceutical, the market share of another growth hormone leader Anke Biology is only 15%.
On May 18th, Li Kun, Secretary of the Board of Directors and Director of Capital Operations of Anke Biological, stated at the Investor Reception Day event: Anke Biological’s sales volume of growth hormone injections in the first quarter of 2021 has surpassed that of the whole year of 2020.
On July 13, the Guoyuan Securities Research Report showed that Anke Bio's growth hormone has been deployed in powder injections and water injections, and the long-acting growth hormone formulation has also completed clinical trials and will be submitted for production. The company's growth hormone water injections have new specifications. The application is progressing well and is expected to be approved in the near future.
The company's 20 million growth hormone production capacity project has been declared in the second half of 2020 and is expected to be approved for production in 2021.
Anke Biosciences stated in the investor survey minutes on May 24 that the
current growth hormone powder injection has an average treatment period of about 400 days, and the overall cost is more than 20,000 yuan, which is about 10cm taller than the treatment effect in one year.
The price of growth hormone water injection is higher than that of powder injection, but more patients are used
.
The 2020 annual report shows that Anke's biological products business accounted for 52.63% of operating income. The biological products here are growth hormones.
From Anke Bio's follow-up pipeline, growth hormone is still the focus of the layout.
At present, in addition to Jinsai Pharmaceutical and Anke Biological, the Y-type polyethylene glycol recombinant human growth hormone (YPEG-GH) project of Tebao Biological is carrying out Phase II/III clinical research; Tianjing Biological is a long-acting recombinant Human growth hormone has also entered phase III clinical trials; Yifan Pharmaceutical's recombinant human growth hormone-Fc fusion protein for injection has also been approved for clinical use.
It is worth noting that in May this year, there was news that the recombinant growth hormone was listed on the list of varieties purchased by 16 provinces and regions.
After the news was announced, Changchun Hi-Tech and Anke Biological both stated that they had not received any official documents from the centralized procurement.
Anke Biotech also stated that the current growth hormone is not a product that needs to be purchased urgently, and that
more than 90% of it is paid for by the patient
.
"The main factor that affects the choice of patients is the awareness of parents. Therefore, the market has no reason for price wars. It is not that the lower the price, the better the sale." Anke Biological said.
Guoyuan Securities also pointed out that
with the promotion of long-acting dosage forms, the price system is even expected to rise further
.
On August 4, an insider of a growth hormone company revealed to the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client that the price of existing growth hormone products will not increase, and the products under development will be decided according to the future market conditions.
The above-mentioned company insiders pointed out that the price of growth hormone is affected by national policies and market competition, and the overall price trend is decreasing. "During the annual bidding process, the price of growth hormone has slightly decreased in general stability."
As of press time, Changchun Biotech had a limit of fall, reported 276.52 yuan/share, with a market value of 111.9 billion yuan; Anke Biotech plunged 11.04% to 13.45 yuan/share, with a market value of 22 billion yuan.
"Growth hormone can be used but not abused"
The treatment of growth hormone in children with short stature in China is on the right track, but the penetration rate is still huge. According to a research report by Guoyuan Securities on July 21, 2021, the proportion of domestic short stature patients receiving treatment in 2020 is only 5.7 %.
At the same time, whether there is abuse of growth hormone and whether the price is too high has repeatedly caused controversy.
Gong Tao, chairman of Shenzhen Zhongjin Huachuang Fund, said in an interview with the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client that on the one hand, some parents have deified the effect of growth hormone, and there is a large-scale and long-term drug abuse; on the other hand, some medical representatives say Economic benefits stimulate doctors to prescribe more growth hormone. Driven by high rebates, the higher the price, the better the market.
It is worth noting that the aforementioned investor survey minutes also show that at present, about 30% of Jinsai Pharmaceutical’s growth hormone is sold in public hospitals, and more than 70% are sold in other cooperative medical institutions. “Currently, the promotion of private medical institutions depends on public Driven by hospital prescriptions".
Not only that, but injecting growth hormone into children who do not need growth hormone supplements will also face serious risks.
Pan Hui, chief physician of the Endocrinology Department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, once pointed out on Weibo that growth hormone is a prescription drug. Growth hormone deficiency, idiopathic short stature, Turner syndrome, etc. are currently approved conditions for the use of growth hormone. In the time window, the epiphysis is not closed, and there is a possibility of growing taller, "We are treating diseases, not cosmetics."
If the child is not a patient with short stature, will he grow taller and faster after taking growth hormone?
Pan Hui said that it is possible in theory, but it is not recommended because it is not within the scope of indication.
He suggested that the growth and development problems should be treated correctly, and a comprehensive growth hormone treatment plan should be carried out under the guidance of specialist doctors. Only scientific treatment can achieve better curative effects, and should not be superstitious about growth hormone.
(At the request of the interviewee, Li Sha, Liu Zhen, and Liu Jing are all aliases.) (China-Singapore Jingwei APP)
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