 Administration of GH has no effect on IGF-1 production, therefore treatment is mainly by biosynthetic IGF-1.IGF-1 must be taken before puberty to be effective.The drug product Increlex (mecasermin), developed by the company Tercica, purchased by Ipsen, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in August 2005 for replacing IGF-1 in patients who are deficient.