US approves drug to improve growth in children with dwarfism

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The US Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved for the first time a drug to improve growth in children with the most common type of dwarfism. 

Voxzogo, manufactured by American pharmaceutical company BioMarin, is authorized in the US to treat kids older than five with achondroplasia whose growth plates — zones of cartilage at the end of long bones — are still open, meaning they still have the potential to grow.

“With this action, children with short stature due to achondroplasia have a treatment option that targets the underlying cause of their short stature,” said FDA endocrinologist Theresa Kehoe in a press release…