Conjugates of an hGH moiety and a polymer

A composition comprising:

• wherein:
• POLY is a water-soluble polymer;
• (a) is either zero or one;
• (b) is either 0 or an integer having a value from 1 to 10;
• (c) is an integer having a value from 1 to 10;
• (d) is either zero or one;
• (e) is either one or two;
• X, when present, is a spacer moiety comprised of one or more atoms;
• R1 is H or an organic radical containing from 1 to 3 carbon atoms;
• Either R2 and R3, when taken together with the carbon atom to which they are attached, in each occurrence considered separately, forms a carbonyl (C═O), or
• R2, in each occurrence, is independently H or an organic radical, and
• R3, in each occurrence, is independently H or an organic radical;
• and
• hGH is a residue of a human growth hormone residue,
• wherein the following provisos apply:
• (i) when R2 and R3, when taken together with the carbon atom to which they are attached form a carbonyl adjacent to the —NH—, and POLY is linear, then (d) equals one and R1 is an organic radical containing from 1 to 3 carbon atoms;
• (ii) when R2 and R3, in each occurrence, are each independently H or an organic radical, then (b) is a positive integer and (a) is one;
• (iii) when POLY is branched, POLY does not contain a lysine residue,
• and further wherein when (e) is one, the composition comprises 85% or greater monoconjugate with respect to all conjugate species contained in the composition, and when (e) is two, the composition comprises greater than 80% diconjugate with respect to all conjugate species contained in the composition, and said composition is bioactive.