Following the FDA’s decision on Orexigen’s Contrave, the question is: Will a successful obesity drug market ever develop?
Around one in three of the global adult population and more than 20 million children under five are overweight according to the World Health Organization. Around 10% of adults are obese. In the US, an estimated 44.2% of males and 48.3% of females have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more and are classified as obese.
Orexigen’s Contrave: possibly a new chapter – but when?
In December 2010, the FDA’s Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee voted positively in favour of Orexigen’s naltrexone sustained-release (SR) and bupropion SR combination, Contrave. The market was then surprised when the FDA did not approve the drug, asking instead for further clinical trials. If Contrave had been approved, it would have been the first new pharmacological treatment for obesity for more than a decade and would have immediately doubled the choice of available therapies; currently the only prescription drug that remains approved for obesity in the US and EU is Roche’s Xenical (orlistat), a low-dose OTC version of which is marketed by GlaxoSmithKline as alli.
Report contents summary
This new report Will Anyone Crack the Obesity Drug Market, (published February 2011) provides a complete review of this difficult to develop area. Please note that web access is included at no additional cost.