The Food and Drug Administration has approved testosterone undecanoate (Jatenzo), an oral capsule for the treatment of male hypogonadism caused by certain conditions, such as genetic disorders or tumors that have damaged the pituitary gland.
Wikimedia Commons/FitzColinGerald/Creative Commons License
The approval is based on results from a 4-month clinical trial involving 166 men with hypogonadism. Patients received 237 mg testosterone undecanoate twice a day initially, a dosage that was adjusted downward or upward to a maximum of 396 mg twice a day, based on testosterone levels. At the end of the trial, 87% of men had achieved testosterone levels within the normal range.
The label for testosterone undecanoate contains a warning that the drug can cause an increase in blood pressure, raising the risk of heart attack, stroke, and cardiovascular death. Other common adverse events associated with testosterone undecanoate include headache, an increase in hematocrit, a decrease in HDL cholesterol, and nausea.
“[The] oral route of administration provides an important addition to current treatment options available for men with certain hypogonadal conditions who, until now, have most commonly been treated with testosterone products that are applied to the skin or injected,” said Hylton V. Joffe, MD, MMSc, director of the division of bone, reproductive, and urologic products at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, in the press release.
Testosterone undecanoate is not approved to treat age-related hypogonadism, even in cases in which men have symptoms caused by low testosterone. The drug’s benefits do not outweigh its risks in those cases, the agency noted.
Find the full press release on the FDA website.
lfranki@mdedge.com