June 30, 2020 — It’s tough getting good information these days. Good, factual information. Everybody wants to spin it. That’s undeniable in public policy. But it also seems to be true in drug development. Yesterday, the FDA definitively rejected an application from Intercept Pharmaceuticals for a new drug to treat NASH – nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. The company was shocked. Its […]
June 19, 2020 — In pharmaceuticals, a one-trick pony is doomed to oblivion. Some companies have a big hit with a successful drug and then struggle to follow up with more innovation. So patents expire and sales dwindle. The company with one-trick innovation fades away. But with solid clinical trial results announced yesterday for two new drugs in obesity, […]
June 17, 2020 — A randomized controlled trial (RCT) in surgery is quite a challenge. For good reason, people are reluctant to sign up for a study in which they might randomly get surgery. Or not. Surgery is a big decision and leaving it to chance doesn’t sit well with most people. Yet an RCT is the very best […]
May 18, 2020 — We call it stealth progress. Rhythm Pharmaceuticals last week gained approval from FDA for a priority review of setmelanotide for rare genetic forms of obesity in children. The indications are for obesity treatment in POMC and LEPR deficiency. Furthermore, the FDA has indicated it doesn’t plan to hold a public hearing on this drug This […]
May 17, 2020 — We’re in the midst of a health crisis. And yet, oddly enough, healthcare has come to a halt in many ways. Dental offices are closed. People are staying away from their doctors. Emergency rooms are deadly quiet. Outside of the intense activity required to save the lives of people suffering severe encounters with COVID-19, healthcare […]
May 14, 2020 — Yesterday the process of a slow reveal began. Novo Nordisk released the first pivotal results in studies of semaglutide for obesity. This new drug, already available for diabetes, has potential to bring us closer to truly effective obesity treatment without surgery. This was merely a first glimpse – topline results from only one of four […]
March 31, 2020 — While the world has been busy with COVID-19, quite a lot has been happening in obesity. Last week, JAMA Pediatrics published an important review of all the evidence-based options for treating obesity in adolescents. The bottom line? Those options are too few, but more are coming. Today, we got a good look at one of […]
March 13, 2020 — Through the last four decades of relentlessly rising obesity, we’ve had two clinical strategies in play. The first approach – arguably dominant – has been to overlook obesity and merely treat the complications as they appear. The other is intensive behavioral treatment. But clearly, neither of these have been adequate. The burden of chronic diseases […]
February 17, 2020 — Why do we have so much obesity? One possible answer is evolution. By this, we don’t mean human evolution. Rather, we mean commercial evolution – of an obesogenic food supply. Many have suggested that the problem lies with addictive foods. Michael Moss tells a slick story about the evil food industry engineering hyperpalatable food that […]
February 7, 2020 — The decade just past brought quite a bit of change in drugs used to treat obesity. At the beginning of the decade, options were few. Prescribing was almost nil. Now we have five new drugs for obesity. For type 2 diabetes, weight-sparing drugs have taken a dominant role in prescribing. One of those drugs, liraglutide, […]
