Latest News in Brief

22nd January, 2009

Meridia was withdrawn in the EU

24th November, 2008
Sanofi Aventis have ceased research into their anti-obesity drug Acomplia. And Merck have ceased research into their experimental drug taranabant, due to concerns about psychiatric side effects. However, there is still a new obesity drug on the horizon, with manufacturers wish to develop it further.

The manufacturer is Neuroseach A/S, a Danish drug company, and the drug is called tesofensine. Neurosearch needs to go into partnership with one of the big drug companies, such as Pfizer or Merck, to complete trials in patients (Phase 1 - 3) to obtain regulatory approval.

However, the trials will be expensive, involving more that seven thousand participants at a cost of more than £90 million. Neurosearch is not in a position to finance the trials on its own.

Pfizer and Merck recently gave up testing their own anti-obesity drugs which worked in a similar way to Acomplia, stating that obtaining approval for this class of drugs was too expensive and risky.

Nevertheless, Tesofensine works differently on the brain to Acomplia. The drug causes three chemicals in the brain to stay at abnormally high levels, fooling the patient into feeling fuller earlier, and for longer.

An article about Tesofensine published in the Lancet, showed that a dose of 0.5 mg taken once a day for 24 weeks led to an average weight loss of over 11 Kg (nearly 25 lbs). The most significant side effect was an increase in resting heart rate of 11%.

So perhaps a new anti-obesity drug will come to market - watch this space...