Somatostatin_Dosage, benefits & legal status
Also known as SRIF, SST, SST-14, Somatostatin-14, Somatotropin release-inhibiting factor, Stilamin
A hormone that works, with a half-life too short to be practical.
Common vial size is what vendors typically sell, not a recommendation. Enter your own vial in the calculator.
What is Somatostatin?
Plain language first. The technical label stays, but it never stands alone.Overview
This is the parent hormone behind three drugs already on this site. Octreotide, lanreotide and pasireotide are all engineered copies of it, so a reasonable question is why anyone bothered. The answer is the half-life. Somatostatin itself is cleared from the blood in about two minutes, so it can only be given as a continuous drip into a vein, and the moment the drip stops the effect stops. The engineered versions last hours to weeks instead. The natural hormone is still a licensed medicine in Spain, Singapore, Germany, France, Italy and elsewhere, used in a hospital for bleeding from ruptured veins in the esophagus and for pancreatic fistulas. It is not approved in the United States.
Somatostatin is a natural human hormone released in two lengths from the same 116 amino acid precursor: somatostatin-14, residues 103 to 116 of the precursor, and somatostatin-28, residues 89 to 116. Somatostatin-14 is simply the last 14 residues of somatostatin-28. The 14 amino acid form reads AGCKNFFWKTFTSC and carries a disulfide bridge between its third and fourteenth residues, the cysteines at precursor positions 105 and 116. Neither form is amidated. It inhibits rather than stimulates, suppressing growth hormone, insulin, glucagon, gastrin and other secretions, and it binds all five somatostatin receptors with roughly comparable potency. Synthetic somatostatin-14 is marketed as a hospital medicine for intravenous infusion in Spain, Singapore and a number of other countries, and it has no FDA approval.
What it's used for
In the countries where it is licensed, treatment of digestive hemorrhage from ruptured esophageal varices, always alongside other measures such as sclerotherapy or surgery rather than instead of them, and as an adjuvant for pancreatic fistulas secreting at least 500 mL a day. Singapore's registration adds ulcer bleeding and complications after pancreatic surgery.
How does Somatostatin work?
What it does in the body, and where.Somatostatin explains the three analog drugs on this site better than any of them explains itself. Two features matter: it inhibits almost everything, and it disappears almost immediately.
- 01One precursor, two hormones, nested inside each otherA single 116 amino acid precursor yields both somatostatin-28, at precursor positions 89 to 116, and somatostatin-14, at positions 103 to 116. The shorter form is contained entirely within the longer one as its last 14 residues. The 14 amino acid version carries a disulfide bridge between its third and fourteenth residues, so it circulates as a closed loop rather than a straight chain, and that ring is part of what the receptors recognize.
- 02An inhibitor, not a stimulatorIts other name is somatotropin release-inhibiting factor, and the name is the mechanism. It suppresses growth hormone, insulin, glucagon, gastrin and a range of digestive secretions, and it reduces blood flow to the gut. That last effect is why it treats bleeding from the esophagus: it lowers pressure in the vessels that are bleeding.
- 03Why selectivity is the thing the analogs addedThere are five somatostatin receptors, numbered one to five. The published receptor table in the pasireotide label puts natural somatostatin's inhibitory concentrations at all five within a narrow band, from 0.15 to 1.5 nanomolar, so it is a pan-agonist with essentially no preference. Octreotide in the same table sits at 0.38 nanomolar at receptor two but above 1000 at receptor four, so it is strongly receptor-two preferring. Pasireotide is broad but strongest at receptor five. The analogs were not built to be stronger. They were built to pick particular receptors and leave others alone.
- 04The two minutes that created a drug classThe Spanish label gives a plasma half-life of about two minutes, in a range of 1.1 to 3 minutes. That is the central fact about this hormone as a medicine. It cannot be injected and left to work, it has to be infused continuously, and when the infusion stops the effect stops within minutes. Lanreotide's long-acting formulation has a half-life measured in weeks. Everything the analogs are for follows from closing that gap.
A schematic of the compound's mechanism, not a diagnostic image.
What else is it used for?
Each group carries its own evidence level.Approved means regulators have cleared it for that purpose. Investigational means it is in trials. Early research means it is being studied and is not established.
It is a licensed medicine, in more places than most readers expect
Clinical use- RegulatorySpain's register lists seven authorized somatostatin products from four companies, three currently marketed, all as intravenous infusion powders carrying the generic marking.
- RegulatorySingapore registers it as Stilamin 3000, prescription-only, ATC H01CB01.
- RegulatoryA European periodic safety review enumerated nationally authorized products in eight further countries including Germany, France, Italy and Poland, under several different brand names.
- RegulatoryIt has no FDA approval, and the FDA label database returns no somatostatin product.
Why the analogs were built
Clinical use- Human trialPlasma half-life of about 2 minutes, range 1.1 to 3 minutes, measured in humans and stated on the label. Continuous infusion is the only way to deliver it.
- Lab studyThe published receptor table puts natural somatostatin between 0.15 and 1.5 nanomolar at all five receptors, a pan-agonist with no meaningful selectivity. Octreotide is 0.38 nanomolar at receptor two and above 1000 at receptor four.
- No dataThree engineered analogs of this hormone already have pages on this site. The parent hormone did not, and that gap is why this page exists.
The most common error is treating somatostatin as a research chemical rather than a medicine. It is a licensed, multi-source hospital generic with an international nonproprietary name and an ATC code, sold in at least ten countries. The second error runs the other way, assuming that because it is a real drug it can be used like the analogs. It cannot: a two-minute half-life means a single injection accomplishes almost nothing, and every licensed product is a continuous intravenous infusion given in a hospital. Third, the brand name varies by country, so somatostatin, Stilamin, Resurmide and Somatostatin Lyomark can all be the same substance. Last, somatostatin-14 and somatostatin-28 are sometimes written about as if they were different hormones from different genes. They come from one precursor, and the 14 is the last 14 residues of the 28. A common claim that the short form is the neural one and the long form the intestinal one is not something we found a source for, so it is left out here.
The published record
Papers and trials about Somatostatin
Searched: somatostatin-14, somatostatin-28, somatostatin variceal, somatostatin varices, somatostatin pancreatic fistula.
Left out: somatostatin (the bare name returns on the order of tens of thousands of records, the great majority about the receptors or the engineered analogs rather than the hormone itself; this is the single most important rejection on this row); somatostatin receptor (the literature of the analogs and of receptor imaging, not of the parent hormone); SRIF (an abbreviation that collides with unrelated terms and adds nothing the explicit forms do not already catch); octreotide (has its own slug); lanreotide (has its own slug); pasireotide (has its own slug); somatostatinoma (a tumor type whose literature is about diagnosis rather than about the hormone as a medicine); growth hormone (an enormous endocrine literature that this hormone only touches at one edge).
188 papers tagged human · 133 not reviews or lab · 27 clinical trial publications
10 registered trials · 1 with posted results
Furthest stage reached: Approved outside the US, Spain, Singapore, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic
Counted from Europe PMC indexing, not read by a person; a human tag can land on reviews, commentary or lab papers; clinical trial publications is the narrower count. 487 papers and 10 trials indexed in detail.
At a glance
Four things to know about Somatostatin
Evidence
Clinical use
Category
Growth hormone
Common vial
Varies
Half-life
About 2 minutes
How much, and do you cycle it?
The range, and whether you take breaks.3.5 mcg/kg/hour, continuous infusion, 48 to 120 hours. A single continuous infusion of 48 to 120 hours Clinical use
This is an acute hospital treatment for active bleeding or an open fistula, given as one continuous infusion for as long as the episode requires, within the label's 48 to 120 hour window. No cycling scheme applies.
How long does it stay in the body?
The half-life, and where the figure comes from.About 2 minutesclinical-guideline
Given on the label as about 2 minutes, range 1.1 to 3 minutes. This is the shortest half-life of any compound on this site, and it is the reason the hormone can only be given as a continuous drip. For contrast, the long-acting lanreotide formulation is measured in weeks.
Source: Spanish summary of product characteristics for registration 63672, section 5.2
You can compare this against the whole library to see where it sits.
How is it given?
Dosing context and source notes.Given in hospital from a prepared product, so there is nothing to mix.
Guideline dose: 3.5 mcg/kg per hour.
The Spanish label gives a maintenance dose of 3.5 micrograms per kilogram per hour by continuous intravenous infusion. That works out to about 250 micrograms an hour or 6 mg a day for a 75 kg adult. Variceal bleeding adds a loading dose of 250 micrograms by slow injection over about three minutes before the infusion starts, and the infusion runs a minimum of 48 hours and a maximum of 120 hours. Severe kidney impairment halves the rate to 1.75 micrograms per kilogram per hour. These figures are a hospital prescribing record, not guidance for anyone to act on.
How do you store it?
Before mixing, and after.Given in a hospital or trial clinic, so the pharmacy stores it.
Somatostatin goes into a vein and is prepared by hospital, clinic or trial pharmacy staff, following the product label or the trial protocol. Some products like this are ready-made solutions and others are powders mixed just before use, often with hours rather than weeks of shelf life once prepared. It is not a medicine people store at home.
What are the side effects and cautions?
Known cautions and warnings for this compound.Solubility, computed: 29% charged residues, 50% hydrophobic. Water usually sufficient.
A first-pass rule from peptide manufacturers' guidance. It does not account for disulfide bridges, salt form or how the powder was dried, and it predicts what should be easy rather than what will happen in your vial.
Who should avoid it
- Any use outside a hospital: the only licensed products are powders for continuous intravenous infusion, prepared and monitored by clinical staff
- Anything sold as somatostatin for self-administration, since a two-minute half-life means an injection does essentially nothing
Stop and get help
- A sharp fall in blood pressure during the loading dose
- Signs of very low or very high blood sugar during the infusion
Common effects
- Nausea and flushing, and dizziness if the loading dose is given too quickly
- Shifts in blood sugar in either direction, since both insulin and glucagon are suppressed
Where this page says nothing is established, that means nobody has studied it, not that a compound is safe.
Is Somatostatin approved?
And where the numbers on this page come from.Not in the United States. Somatostatin has no FDA approval. It is approved in Spain, Singapore, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, and the Czech Republic.
- Approval statusClinical use
- RouteInto a vein (continuous infusion)
- Checked26 October 2026
- Approved outside the USSpain, Singapore, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic.This does not change the United States position above.
- DoseFrom product labeling and clinical guidelines.
- Vial sizeFrom what vendors typically list; not a recommendation.
- Sources
What has happened recently
Licensed in a number of countries and not in the United States. Spain's medicines register returns seven authorized somatostatin products, three of them currently marketed: Somatostatina GP Pharm 3 mg under registration 63672, and Somatostatina Normon at 3 mg and 6 mg under registrations 69159 and 69157. All are powder plus solvent for infusion solution, given intravenously, and all are generics. Singapore registers Stilamin 3000 as a prescription-only injection under SIN06135P, held by Merck, with the ATC code H01CB01. A European periodic safety review listed nationally authorized somatostatin products in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy and Poland, under brand names including Somatostatin Lyomark, Resurmide and Somatostatine Viatris. Two points follow from that. The drug is an old multi-source hospital generic rather than a specialty product, and the brand name varies by country, so there is no single name to search for. It carries no FDA approval, and a search of the FDA label database returns nothing for it.
You can compare this against the whole library, or read how to check a seller.
What else is like Somatostatin?
Others in Growth hormone peptides, side by side.If you're weighing Somatostatin, it's worth reading Tesamorelin, Ipamorelin, and CJC-1295 no DAC (Mod GRF 1-29) in the same class.
A hormone that works, with a half-life too short to be practical.
- Dose
- 3.5 mcg/kg/hour
- How often
- Continuous infusion, 48 to 120 hours
An approved shot proven to shrink stubborn belly fat.
- Dose
- 1.28 up to 2 mg per day, depending on which product you have
- How often
- Daily
A gentle shot that nudges your body to release its own growth hormone.
- Dose
- 0.2 up to 0.3 mg per dose (start low, increase slowly)
- How often
- Daily, often at night
A short-acting growth-hormone pulse, usually paired with ipamorelin.
- Dose
- 0.1 mg per dose
- How often
- Daily to 2x daily
Guides for this compound
- How to Reconstitute a Peptide
Mix peptide powder with bacteriostatic water, step by step.
- How to Read an Insulin Syringe
Read the units, convert to millilitres, and draw the exact dose.
- mcg vs mg: The Peptide Dosing Mistake to Avoid
Your vial says mg and your protocol says mcg. Here is the conversion and how to check it.
Sources
- UniProt P61278, human somatostatin precursor(2026)The reference sequence record, read positionally rather than taken from a summary. The precursor is 116 amino acids. Somatostatin-28 is annotated as residues 89 to 116 and somatostatin-14 as residues 103 to 116, and counting the sequence out gives SANSNPAMAPRERKAGCKNFFWKTFTSC for the 28 and AGCKNFFWKTFTSC for the 14, confirming that the short form is the C-terminal 14 residues of the long one. A disulfide bond is annotated between Cys105 and Cys116, positions 3 and 14 within somatostatin-14. Neither mature form carries an amidation: the one amide annotation in the entry, at position 43, belongs to neuronostatin, a separate peptide from the same precursor.
- Spanish Agency for Medicines, product register entry for somatostatin(2026)The regulator's own register. Returns seven authorized somatostatin products, all intravenous powder plus solvent for infusion solution. Three are flagged as currently marketed: Somatostatina GP Pharm 3 mg, registration 63672, held by Gp Pharm; Somatostatina Normon 3 mg, registration 69159; and Somatostatina Normon 6 mg, registration 69157, both held by Laboratorios Normon. Four more are authorized but not currently marketed, from Accord Healthcare and Eumedica, including 0.25 mg strengths. All carry the EFG generic marking. This is the primary evidence that somatostatin itself is a licensed multi-source medicine and not merely a research substance.
- Spanish summary of product characteristics, Somatostatina GP Pharm 3 mg, registration 63672(2026)The prescribing document. Section 5.2 gives the plasma half-life as about 2 minutes with a range of 1.1 to 3 minutes. Section 5.1 describes the active substance as a synthetic peptide of 14 amino acids, so the marketed drug is synthetic somatostatin-14 rather than an extract. Section 2 gives each vial as 3 mg of somatostatin as the hydrated acetate, with 1 mL of 0.9 percent sodium chloride as solvent. Section 4.1 lists two indications: treatment of digestive hemorrhage from ruptured esophageal varices, to be used alongside other measures such as sclerotherapy or surgery and explicitly not as a replacement for them, and use as an adjuvant for pancreatic fistulas secreting at least 500 mL a day. Section 4.2 gives continuous intravenous infusion at 3.5 micrograms per kilogram per hour, about 250 micrograms an hour for a 75 kg patient, with a 250 microgram loading dose by slow injection over about three minutes, blood pressure monitored closely during that dose, a duration of 48 to 120 hours for variceal bleeding, and a reduction to 1.75 micrograms per kilogram per hour in severe kidney impairment.
- Singapore National Drug Formulary, Stilamin 3000 for Injection(2026)A second national regulator's record, useful because it shows the drug is licensed outside Europe and under a brand name rather than as a generic. Registration SIN06135P, Stilamin 3000 for Injection at 3 mg per ampoule, with the active given as somatostatin acetate equivalent to somatostatin, held by Merck Pte Ltd, prescription-only, ATC code H01CB01.
Beyond these, 497 records are indexed. Browse the records