Speaking of LLY, the leptin program could get a boost from the recent AAAS meeting. The story actually mentions both of LGND's programs indirectly (increasing leptin levels and influencing leptin signaling):
Researchers Seek New Fat-busting Drugs
By CHARLES PETIT
c.1998 San Francisco Chronicle
PHILADELPHIA - Forget fen-phen, the two-drug fat medication
pulled from the market last year after discovery it could harm heart
valves.
New generations of far more effective anti-obesity drugs could be on
the market within five years, manipulating basic pathways in the brain
and adipose, or fat tissue, that regulate appetite, metabolism and
weight, according to scientists meeting here last Thursday.
Obesity has been a much-neglected ''disease,'' they said, but it is
starting to get serious research attention.
The speakers, at a panel at the annual meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, called for a large
increase in federal support for research into obesity and its health
costs, as well as ways to treat it. The call for more federal money
comes as virtually every large drug company in the world is pouring
money into the search for new drugs that take advantage of the latest
research into weight, appetite, fitness and health.
But the lesson of fen-phen (named for its two key ingredients,
fenfluramine and phentermine) also makes medical researchers wary,
even as they are hot on the trail of new fat-busting drugs.
''I wouldn't want these drugs to be just given to anybody who wants
to be a little thinner,'' said Dr. Michael Schwartz, associate professor
of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
''They are meant for people who have medical indications their
obesity is actually a problem.''
However, he conceded, public demand for effective anti-fat drugs
may be so strong it could overwhelm efforts to restrict their use. As a
result, he said, drugs that have side effects for some people, or that
become more dangerous at high doses, could do some people serious
harm.
Fen-phen, and some other drugs already or soon to be available, such
as Meridia from Knoll Pharmaceuticals, alter the chemistry of
hormones, such as serotonin, related to satiety - the feeling of fullness.
''We don't understand how they work very well, and they don't have
a huge effect for most people,'' said University of California at Davis
nutritionist Judith Stern. ''But the next drugs and medications should
work on a much more fundamental level.''
Stern said the United States is suffering an epidemic of obesity, with
one in three adult Americans significantly overweight. While the exact
definition of obesity is subject to debate, she said the costs of fatness
are about $100 billion per year, two thirds for medical costs and a
third for diets that seldom work for long.
The federal government now spends only about $92 million per year
on obesity research, compared to $1 billion apiece for heart disease
and HIV research, she said. Federal support for basic research, she
added, is essential to provide the insights that drug companies can then
chase to market with new medications.
One of the most promising lines of research involves a protein called
leptin,, discovered in 1994 to be intimately involved in controlling
appetite as well as fat storage and fat metabolism. In tests with
genetically fat rats, extra leptin caused rapid weight loss. In people,
scientists hope, ways can be found to boost leptin levels, or to make
their brains and appetite centers more sensitive to leptin, to bring
weight down.
Other substances recently found to provide possible keys to
controlling weight - to make the systems of naturally fat people act like
those who never have to worry over weight - are called melanocortin,
and NPY (for neuropeptide Y).
''I'd say that in five years, some new drugs will be available that are
far more effective than anything we have today,'' Schwartz said.
For all the talk of drugs to control weight, all the experts who spoke
agreed that fitness also demands exercise, and prudent selection of
what kinds of food to eat. Genetics determines largely who is fat and
who is not, ''but the rise in obesity is not because our genes have
changed,'' said biologist M.R.C. ''Marci'' Greenwood, chancellor of
UC Santa Cruz. ''Kids are not even exercising like they used to.''
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(The San Francisco Chronicle Web site is at sfgate.com.) |
