New drugs signal rapid growth of anti-obesity drug market

Abstract

The idea of treating obesity with pharmaceutical drugs is gaining greater acceptance among the medical profession as recognition of obesity as a serious medical condition increases. Thus, a new drug market has been created that will probably be associated with multi-billion dollar sales around the world. Tetrahydrolipstatin [orlistat; Roche; phase III] and sibutramine [Knoll; preregistration] are the only 2 drugs on the verge of providing competition to currently available appetite suppressants, such as dexfenfluramine. However, a number of other drugs are further down the line, with some interesting new approaches in development. These include Neuromedica’s novel dopamine D₂ autoreceptor agonist, NMI-8739, a drug that was featured at the 3rd IBC USA International Symposium on Obesity entitled ‘Advances in Understanding and Treatment’ [ San Diego, US; September 1996 ].