Combo Drugs Prepare to Tap Underserved Obesity Market

Big Pharma's next attempt to kill the fat and have us pay for it.

"Feeling guilty about all that Valentine's Day chocolate you polished off last weekend?

Chances are you're not the only one who overindulged. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than a third of Americans - about 72 million people - are obese, and another third are overweight. Globally, the World Health Organization projects that 400 million adults are obese and 1.6 billion are overweight. Those figures are expected to grow to 700 million and 2.3 billion, respectively, by 2015.

But most folks don't need convincing that obesity is a problem; one trip to a local shopping mall, airport or restaurant is usually enough to do the trick. The question is why the pharmaceutical industry hasn't found a way to successfully tap this market.

The demand is certainly there. According to a recent report from JPMorgan Securities Inc., the overall U.S. market for weight-loss remedies and diet products was more than $50 billion in 2006. Yet prescription pharmaceutical products accounted for just $200 million in 2007 - less than one percent of the total market."

Why?

"JPMorgan analyst Cory Kasimov said the explanation is 'really quite simple: there are no safe and effective drugs.'"

True.

"Several obesity drugs are now in late stage development, and many have similar mechanisms to the approved drugs. Merck & Co. Inc. and Pfizer Inc. are conducting Phase III trials with the CB1 blockers MK-0364 (taranabant) and CP-945598, respectively. Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. is in Phase III with lorcaserin, which agonizes the 5-HT2c serotonin receptor. And Alizyme Therapeutics Ltd. is in the process of getting special protocol assessments approved and finding a partner for Phase III trials of gastrointestinal lipase inhibitor, cetilistat."

"Similar mechanisms" to the unsafe and ineffective drugs.

"Kasimov projected that as these and other new products gain approval, the market for prescription obesity drugs will grow from $200 million in 2007 to $1.5 billion in 2012 and more than $4.6 billion in 2017."

Both your fat body and fat wallet are fair game to Big Pharma.

But helping you is not.

Get fit.

Or get poorer, sicker and deader.