Obesity: Getting the Skinny on a Big Market
January 31st, 2006Basking Ridge, NJ
Obesity is among the largest of underserved pharmaceutical markets, despite an ever-increasing patient population (potentially 1 in 3 Americans are candidates for treatment). Those few drugs that have reached the market have been fraught with unpleasant or dangerous side effects and/or marginal efficacy. Sanofi-aventis’ Acomplia (rimonabant) promises to be the first blockbuster in this as yet unexploited category, getting the jump on a large number of other compounds with various mechanisms that follow in the pipeline.
Development of a viable Rx treatment for obesity isn’t for the faint of heart. Pathways, involving the CNS, gut, and endocrine systems, are complex. Even if they were better understood, it would seem difficult to create an effective anti-obesity therapy with minimal side effects since body weight interplays with so many organ systems. On the other hand, those patients seeking more cosmetic improvements in weight are likely to accept lower efficacy and even more side effects, and to pay out-of-pocket. From a franchise perspective, future therapies can be linked with other medications for a variety of obesity-associated conditions, such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, or even osteoarthritis, and also can be utilized in tandem with a variety of available and evolving devices or procedures.
At this Insight Series briefing, Defined Health will examine, from a scientific, clinical and commercial perspective, the challenges and rewards that await in this potential blockbuster market. It remains to be seen how managed care and the FDA will react to a novel medication
targeting what some have suggested is a non-medical need that can be addressed by diet and exercise, at least in the vast majority of patients. Will the market be driven by the diseasification of obesity or metabolic syndrome, or by event-dieters? What are the new safety hurdles for these drugs in the post-Vioxx world? Will any one MOA be the key, or will this be an area for combination or multicomponent drugs, or polypharmacy (and if so, what safety risks will this bring) and drug/device interventions?
