Originally published February 12 2006
Big Pharma banks on a new generation of weight loss drugs
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Sanofi-Aventis SA's Acomplia, or rimonabant, is expected to be the next big anti-obesity medicine, as experts predicts the drug's sales will approach $3 billion a year.
A marijuana joint might seem an odd starting point in the search for weight-loss secrets.
Yet a compound switching off the same brain circuits that make people hungry when they smoke cannabis looks set to become the world's first blockbuster anti-obesity medicine, with sales tipped by analysts to top $3 billion a year.
Sanofi-Aventis SA's (SASY.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) Acomplia, or rimonabant, which could be approved by U.S. regulators as early as next month, is the first of a new wave of treatments that may spell fat profits for some pharmaceutical companies.
Another two experimental drugs from Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc (ARNA.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and Alizyme Plc (AZM.L: Quote, Profile, Research), with different mechanisms of action, have also produced promising clinical results in recent weeks, prompting some investors to start laying big bets on weight-loss medicine.
Jonathan de Pass, chief executive of specialist consultancy Evaluate, calculates there are now 26 new drugs in clinical trials for obesity and a further 32 in early-stage development.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates more than 1 billion people in the world are overweight and, if current trends continue, that number will reach 1.5 billion by 2015.
Of the current total, more than 300 million already rank as obese, putting them at substantial risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, respiratory problems and some cancers.
Dr Timothy Armstrong of the WHO's department of chronic diseases believes medication can help only a very small minority of patients and will not impact the overall obesity epidemic.
Professor Luc Van Gaal of Belgium's University Hospital Antwerp, the lead investigator for one of the main clinical studies for Acomplia, sees things rather differently.
Just how big the drug will be, however, depends on the terms of use that Sanofi agrees with healthcare regulators.
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