Big Pharma Competes for Weight-Loss Sweepstakes

What do pharmaceutical makers have in their bag of tricks for us this year? It appears the big money drug for 2008 is a weight-loss pill that promises people effortless diets that will allow them to lose weight quickly and eat anything they want along the way. All the big guns in the industry are jumping on this bandwagon, as the financial stakes are astronomically high and the competition is formidable.

Let me see if I have this straight. The FDA is working with the drug companies to produce medications that work completely contrary to the natural operations of the body, and helping to convince the American public that these new weight-loss products are safe and beneficial. These are the same bureaucrats that have criminalized the use of cherries and other natural substances by throwing the book at anyone who would dare to claim that such things as vitamins, minerals, fruits, and vegetables may help to prevent and reverse disease.

I encourage any and all of you to slim down using natural, sensible means such as increasing exercise, reducing calories, and eating a whole foods based diet. However, if people buy into the claims of the pharmaceutical companies and their public relations branch the FDA, they will expose themselves to unproven hazards and only worsen their health. I shudder to think of what putting such synthetic substances in the body will do. The sad thing is that fortunes are able to be made from such travesties as these types of drugs simply because most Americans are too lazy to sacrifice and make the necessary lifestyle changes required to lose weight and pursue wellness.


Drugmakers vie for magic weight-loss pill
Consumers willing to pay to shed pounds without dieting and exercise

The Associated Press
updated 1:53 p.m. CT, Thurs., Jan. 3, 2008

NEW YORK - The race for a magic weight-loss pill will heat up in 2008, with several major pharmaceutical companies expected to release key clinical trial data on drugs that appear to generate more weight loss than anything now on the market.

The diet industry is a multibillion-dollar enterprise, with companies such as WeightWatchers, Nutrisystem and Medifast kicking off the year by marketing diet and behavioral changes to consumers who have made losing weight their top New Year's resolution.

But the quest hasn't abated for a long-term weight-loss solution in the form of a pill capable of solving the nation's growing obesity epidemic.

In the U.S., Europe and Japan, the market for weight-loss drugs totaled about $600 million in 2005, and is expected to surge globally to roughly $2 billion in 2010, according to a recent report from drug industry market information provider Espicom Healthcare Intelligence.

Billions of dollars at stakeClearly people will pay whatever it takes to lose weight without restrictive diets and exercise, and the company that can make that happen could bring in billions.

"Doctors and patients tell us there is tremendous interest in a medicine that can provide safe, double-digit weight loss," said Daniel M. Bradbury, president and chief executive of San Diego-based Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc., which is heavily pursuing drugs for obesity.

About half a dozen drugs are currently available by prescription for weight loss and obesity including Roche Laboratories Inc.'s Xenical and Abbott Laboratories' Meridia. But weight loss with current drugs is rarely more than 10 percent, and these products can cause unpleasant side effects.

British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline had some success in 2007 with its over-the-counter weight-loss drug Alli, which like Xenical eliminates a portion of ingested fat before it can be stored in the body. Glaxo reported third-quarter sales of its over-the-counter drugs grew 24 percent to $827.5 million, boosted in part by the launch of Alli in the U.S.

But competition is rising, with at least 30 companies now targeting the market, particularly with combinations of drugs currently for sale. Pfizer Inc. and Bristol-Squibb recently teamed up to develop DGAT-1 inhibitors, or compounds that target the DGAT enzyme critical to the creation of triglycerides and fat storage. Other vying for a piece of the obesity drug market include Orexigen Therapeutics Inc., Novo Nordisk A/S, Merck & Co., Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc., Vivus Inc. and Athersys Inc.

Double-digit weight loss"Overall what we're starting to see is the use of combination products that could approach the levels of efficacy of some surgeries, and that's unprecedented," said Lazard Capital Markets analyst Matthew Osborne in an interview. "If you're seeing greater than 15 to 20 percent weight loss, that is a significant benefit over the existing class of drugs, which show around 5 percent weight loss and short-lived results."

San Diego-based Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. has an obesity product, Lorcaserin, already in late-stage trials. In March, the company is expected to report critical safety results. The drug, which hasn't shown safety issues so far, has been under intense scrutiny by analysts who are concerned about its marketing viability, since Lorcaserin is said to work similarly to now discontinued Fen-Phen, which caused heart problems.

Meanwhile, Amylin has seen success with its diabetes drug Byetta, after patients reported weight loss as a welcomed side effect, prompting doctors to prescribe it off-label to overweight patients. Amylin now is pursuing another diabetes drug, Symlin (pramlintide), for obesity, in combination with other hormones and already available obesity drugs.

The company expects to complete a midstage study of pramlintide plus leptin in 2008.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22490513/