According to the article, “Arena, Orexigen and Vivus Are Chasing an Effective Diet Drug” posted at ,
“This is the biggest field, bigger than statins potentially,” said Jack Lief, chief executive of Arena Pharmaceuticals, referring to cholesterol-lowering drugs like Lipitor, which by itself had $12.4 billion in global sales last year.
The companies say they have tried especially to avoid side effects that have tripped up diet drugs in the past. And the products from Orexigen and Vivus are combinations of two drugs, which some experts say might be more effective than a single medicine.
Patients in clinical trials of the three drugs lost an average of 3 to 10 percent of their weight after a year in addition to what was accomplished by efforts to improve diet and exercise.
Vivus’s drug, Qnexa, provided the greatest weight loss, which is why that company’s stock is up 90 percent this year, more than that of the other two companies. But Qnexa’s ingredients may raise the biggest safety questions, although the clinical trials did not detect major problems.
(Read More at NYTimes.com.)