BusinessWeek on the Prescription Weight Loss Industry

By Jennifer Hopfinger
March 13, 2008 02:55 PM

A pill to cure obesity? The drug company that develops one will hit the jackpot--and some firms are coming close, according to the March 17 issue of BusinessWeek. The magazine’s cover story, “Inside the War on Fat,” by Arlene Weintraub, looks at the latest developments in weight-loss treatment.

Certainly, such a pill is needed. According to the article, an astounding one-third of all Americans are obese and another third are overweight. The market for weight-loss treatments, including diet programs and over-the-counter diet aids, is worth about $33 billion. Only about $200 million of that comes from prescription treatments. A windfall awaits the firm that comes out with a blockbuster drug.

But, given a host of safety concerns associated with such drugs and questions about how well they even work, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking a tough stance on weight-loss treatments. Approvals will not come easily. Case in point: Acomplia, Sanofi-Aventis’ weight-loss drug, got shot down by the FDA in a unanimous vote last June because of side effects that included memory loss and serious depression.

“The race for riches has attracted a diverse group of contenders worldwide, from fledgling biotechs to deep-pocketed pharmaceutical giants. They're all using the latest insights of neuroscience to conquer side effects, from heart troubles to melancholy, that have plagued obesity treatments for more than half a century,” Weintraub writes.

The article examines three companies that have drugs in development that have shown promising initial results: Vivus Pharmaceuticals, Merck, and Amylin. “But for these and other companies, the quest for an obesity cure might well end in tears,” Weintraub concludes. “Their research is playing out against a backdrop of fatalities, failed clinical trials, and product recalls, most famously the Vioxx and fen-phen debacles of a few years back. Never before have drug applications confronted the kind of intense FDA scrutiny that scuttled Acomplia.”

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Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism