This article reveals something of the mindset of the profit frenzied pharmaceutical companies. Notice the bolded quote.
biz.yahoo.com
Quest for blockbuster obesity drug vexes drug makers
By F. Brinley Bruton
NEW YORK, Aug 11 (Reuters) - About one in five people in the world's richest nation are obese, and overweight Americans would probably pay a king's ransom for a pill that could help them look slimmer, feel better and live longer.
Finding the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow is a temptation that is difficult for pharmaceutical producers to resist, even though the road to riches so far has brought many of them disappointment.
The drug companies ``thought there were a lot of people in America who would be very desperate to get their hands on an anti-obesity drug -- but they forgot that you don't just take a pill and lose pounds. There is not a cure-all and panacea for obesity,'' James McKean, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's European pharmaceutical analyst, said.
The latest stumble in the history of obesity drugs came in June, when Swiss-based Roche Holdings Ltd. warned of slowing second-quarter sales growth for Xenical, its showcase medicine, only a year after its launch.
The problem is some weight-control drugs that have hit the market carry the risk of unpleasant or even dangerous side effects. Others have proven only partially effective as they also involve harsh dietary regimes that patients have been unable to follow for long.
Another issue is that many doctors are reluctant to prescribe drugs to help patients lose weight when dieting and exercise may be the best cure.
Even so, with billions of dollars in sales up for grabs from about 35 million obese Americans and tens of millions elsewhere, the company that can develop and market a safe, effective treatment to help people lose weight knows it will be on to a winner.
In the United States, about 55 percent of the population is above the recommended weight for their height, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The percent of Americans who are obese -- which for a 5-foot-tall woman is defined as a weight of more than about 155 pounds -- went from 13 percent in 1991, to about 20 percent in the mid-1990s, it estimates.
With the extra weight comes an increased risk of hypertension, or high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, gallbladder diseases, osteoarthritis, respiratory problems and certain types of cancer.
But even as the number of overweight people grows, a clear winner has yet to emerge in the race to develop safe and effective obesity treatments.
``There is just no easy cure for losing weight,'' said Neil Sweig, pharmaceutical analyst for Ryan, Beck Co. in New York.
GIANTS STUMBLE
Knoll Pharmaceutical Co., part of the world's biggest chemical company, Germany's BASF AG , has hit its fair share of obstacles in trying to tap the anti-obesity market. It is now recovering from disappointing sales and regulatory problems regarding its anti-obesity drug Meridia.
Sales for the drug, known as Reductil outside the United States, fell in 1999. Taking the drug could carry the risk of side-effects such as insomnia, a rapid heartbeat and elevated blood pressure, according to data from clinical trials sponsored by BASF Pharma, the company's pharmaceuticals arm.
After spending about $29 million in each of the past five years on anti-obesity research, BASF said in April it was selling a research site in Britain where it was conducting five anti-obesity studies.
``It doesn't mean that we are leaving the area, but we are certainly reducing our involvement,'' Ulrich Grau, head of research and development at BASF Pharma, said.
Roche Holding Ltd. had the most recent setback. On June 22, the Swiss drug maker warned that its first-half revenues would be little changed from the year-earlier period because of lackluster sales for its showcase anti-obesity drug Xenical.
Analysts say the drug's possible side effects, such as diarrhoea if a strict diet is not followed, may mean that people are using it once and not returning.
Roche's experience with Xenical was disappointing after a year of heady growth and great expectations for the drug, whose U.S. launch was in April 1999, according to analysts.
WHO, OR WHAT, IS RESPONSIBLE?
Before drugs like Xenical and Meridia can reach their potential, drug companies say, the possibility of a pharmaceutical treatment to obesity would have to become more widely accepted. Many consumers still see obesity more as a cosmetic concern, not a health issue.
The view that some obese people could benefit from certain drugs -- going beyond changes in exercise and eating habits -- must be embraced by the medical profession and patients alike, they say. And that is an uphill struggle.
``Part of our challenge moving forward with Xenical is to 'medicalize' weight management to physicians,'' Terence Hurley, a Roche spokesman, said.
Before that can happen, some medical experts say, questions about the effectiveness of anti-obesity drugs must be resolved conclusively.
``None of the drugs that we have today work very well,'' said Robert Sherwin, the president of the American Diabetes Foundation and professor of Medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine. Medications on the market are not very effective ``weight-reducing agents, and for most people only have small effect,'' he added.
Some anti-obesity treatments have proved not only hard to stick to, but potentially dangerous.
Fen-phen was one to hit the headlines. That drug cocktail -- made by combining either Pondimin (fenfluramine) or Redux (dexfenfluramine) with another diet appetite suppressant called phentermine -- was widely prescribed to help people lose weight. But in 1997, American Home Products Corp. (NYSE:AHP - news), which made Pondimin and Redux, recalled them after some of the six million Americans who had taken fen-phen developed heart-valve problems.
The New Jersey-based drug maker eventually took a pre-tax charge of $4.75 billion to cover settlements of claims in the United States by former users of the diet pills.
Curiously, the fen-phen experience may actually have enticed drug companies such as Roche and Knoll to compete for the anti-obesity market.
Fen-phen was ``fabulously successful'' for a time, said McKean of Morgan Stanley, and Roche probably intended Xenical to fill the market space emptied by fen-phen.
While no new drugs to combat obesity are on the immediate horizon, research efforts aimed at developing new ways to treat obesity are under way.
In June and July, two studies -- one by researchers from SmithKline Beecham Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: SB.L) and Cambridge University in England, and the other by researchers at Johns Hopkins University of Medicine in Baltimore -- signalled the discovery of compounds or proteins that led to significant weight loss in mice.
But even these promising studies do not mean that a new anti-obesity treatment will reach the market any time soon, McKean said.
While a drug may help obese rodents lose weight, there is no guarantee that it will work on humans, he said. Indeed, a breakthrough in this area is not very likely for at least another 18 months.
Knoll's Grau is even less optimistic. ``We should expect major breakthroughs in treatment in none of the drugs currently in development,'' he said. ``I would be surprised if we had anything come to the market in five to six years.'' |
