Tesamorelin Research for Fatty Liver Disease

In a small 12-month randomized trial in people with HIV and NAFLD, tesamorelin lowered hepatic fat fraction relative to placebo by an estimated 4.1 percentage points; 35% versus 4% had HFF below 5%. Fibrosis progression was less frequent in the paired-biopsy subset, but existing fibrosis did not significantly improve. Gene and protein analyses came from the same cohort. A separate completed study in adults with obesity and fatty liver without HIV (NCT03375788) posted results in 2025; the registry reports median liver-fat changes of -5.3% in 18 analyzed tesamorelin participants versus +3.6% in 16 placebo participants at 12 months. This small registry result does not establish clinical liver benefit. Tesamorelin is not FDA-approved for fatty liver disease.