# Pasireotide

Source: https://onco.cc/drugs/pasireotide/  
OnCo record `pasireotide` (Treatment). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Pasireotide is a second-generation somatostatin analogue that hits more receptor types than octreotide. It is approved for Cushing's disease and acromegaly caused by pituitary tumours when surgery has not cured them, at the cost of frequent high blood sugar.

## Summary

Pasireotide (SOM230) was developed by Novartis and is now marketed by Recordati. The FDA approved the twice-daily subcutaneous form in 2012 for Cushing's disease when surgery is not an option or has failed, the first drug approved for that indication, and the monthly long-acting depot in 2014 for acromegaly inadequately controlled by surgery. It normalises cortisol in a minority and growth hormone and IGF-1 in a larger fraction of patients, and shrinks tumours in many.

Hyperglycaemia, from suppression of insulin and incretins, is the main side effect and often needs treatment. Beyond the pituitary, the phase 2 LUNA trial tested it alone and with everolimus in lung and thymic neuroendocrine tumours and found activity in each arm, without a placebo comparison. The pituitary tumours and lung neuroendocrine tumour pages name it.

## Fields

- Kind: Treatment
- Status: approved
- Last checked: 2026-09-17
- Also known as: SOM230
- Tags: subtype-drugs-wave
- Brand: Signifor / Signifor LAR
- Modality: Multireceptor somatostatin analogue (subcutaneous or monthly depot)
- Mechanism: Binds somatostatin receptors 1, 2, 3 and 5, with far higher affinity for SSTR5 than octreotide; SSTR5 dominates on corticotroph adenomas, so it suppresses ACTH in Cushing's disease and growth hormone in acromegaly resistant to first-generation analogues.
- Approvals: US 2012: Cushing's disease when pituitary surgery is not an option or has not been curative; US 2014: Acromegaly inadequately controlled by surgery or for whom surgery is not an option (long-acting depot)

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasireotide
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasireotide

## Connected records

- drugs: [Everolimus](https://onco.cc/drugs/everolimus/), [Pegvisomant](https://onco.cc/drugs/pegvisomant/), [Somatostatin analogues (octreotide, lanreotide)](https://onco.cc/drugs/octreotide-lanreotide/)
- cancers: [Lung neuroendocrine tumours (typical and atypical carcinoid)](https://onco.cc/cancers/lung-net/), [Pituitary tumours (pituitary neuroendocrine tumours) and pituitary carcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/pituitary-tumours/)
- targets: [Somatostatin receptor 2](https://onco.cc/targets/sstr2/)
- companies: [Recordati](https://onco.cc/companies/recordati/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/pasireotide.json