So far so good-
Sounds like we still have a long wait to market, however.
(11/28/00 6:06:49 AM PT)
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Tarrytown, N.Y, biotechnology company, plans to announce favorable clinical results for its experimental obesity drug, Axokine, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The study of 170 severely obese people found that those who took daily injections of the drug lost on average between three and nine pounds over 12 weeks. People who received a placebo on average gained slightly more than one pound.
Regeneron (REGN) said yesterday that it will discuss the results of the research for investors and others in a conference call and an Internet broadcast today. The announcement helped send the company's shares up $3.06, or 11%, to $26.13 as of 4 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market trading.
Regeneron said it planned to initiate a large-scale safety and effectiveness study of Axokine beginning as early as the middle of next year. That test will study the drug in about 1,000 patients.
Axokine is a genetically engineered version of a human protein that was first tested in patients with Lou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. That effort, which has since been dropped, led to the serendipitous discovery that the drug caused significant weight loss.
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