Weight Loss Drugs
- A High Risk Business
May 11, 2005
APD356, a new experimental drug launched
by Arena Pharmaceuticals, has been
accredited with enabling patients to lose an average
weight of 2.9 pounds in only 28 days. However, due to
the limited duration of the study, safety concerns have
been raised upon this.
The drug has its composition derived from an extremely
disastrous diet combo fen-phen, a combination of fenfluramine
and phentermine, which damaged the heart valves of some
of the people who took it. The damages led to a reserve
of some $21 billion to pay for legal settlements by
the drug maker Wyeth.
Apparently APD356 is far more specific, and so far
the heart valve damage that led to fen-phen's withdrawal
has not been repeated. According to Jack Lief, Arena's
Chief Executive, the heart valve side effects with Fenfluramine
were rare, and a big clinical trial could settle the
issue. He says the current trial is too small to lead
to definite conclusions, and to finish developing the
drug, and Arena may need to enlist a big pharmaceutical
partner.
Meanwhile, Sanofi-Aventis is also developing an obesity
drug, Acomplia which blocks the same receptors that
gives pot smokers the appetite, and could help overweight
patients lose
weight. It may also be used to make it easier for
tobacco smokers to quit smoking. Along with helping
heavy patients lose weight, Acomplia also raises good
cholesterol, cuts bad cholesterol reducing triglycerides
and generally seems as if it should reduce the risk
of heart disease and other obesity-related killers.
Acomplia's potential is to be a chronic medicine on
a par with Pfizer's cholesterol-lowering medicine Lipitor,
the world's top seller. Bristol-Myers Squibb also recently
licensed its own Acomplia-like drug, which is in early
safety trials. An appetite-reducing drug that works
in the brain probably doesn't have the same potential
and even if Arena's pill clears all safety hurdles,
investors might need to exercise caution.
Arena also recently signed a deal with the potential
worth $317 million with Johnson & Johnson to develop
diabetes medicines. Lief says it is the biggest such
deal ever in biotech.
Source: http://www.news-medical.net
|
