Stirling Products has received the first approval for its patent application for “Methods of decreasing fat deposits and body weight in mammals and birds” in New Zealand. The patent relates to the use of the company’s R-salbutamol compound. The product has the potential to reduce body weight. CEO and Managing Director of Stirling Products, Dr Calvin London said that he hoped that a series of approvals in other countries would follow. The company has already conducted studies for the compound on obese male Zucker rats.

The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has given positive opinion as a non-prescription product to GlaxoSmithKline’s alli (orlistat 60 mg). This takes the product to the stage of proposal for final approval by the European Commission. A marketing authorization will follow that. On the grant of license, alli 60 mg would become the first aid for weight loss to be available without prescription across Europe. It will be indicated for people above the age of 18 with a BMI more than 28 kg/m2.

The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has made a recommendation to the European Commission (EC) for suspending Acomplia’s marketing authorization temporarily for the treatment of obese patients. The regulatory body concluded that the risks of Acomplia outweigh its benefits. Side effects such as depression have been a part of the warnings ever since the product was authorized in 2006. Sanofi-aventis is complying with the order, but believes that its product will continue to be an effective treatment.

A recent research conducted at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota has concluded that obese patients can consider bariatric surgery for reducing the risk of adverse cardiovascular events. This is the first ever study to take into account validated scores for cardiovascular risk on a patient population and compare them with previous results. The results showed that cardiovascular risk was reduced by up to 79 per cent.

Researchers from Vitagenes (a company that is a  part of the Campus program promoted by the University of Granada) in collaboration with some Australian scientists have discovered a new pattern/model of the molecule called interleukin-6 that may prove to be a boon for the patients suffering from obesity and diabetes. It was injected daily for two weeks. Then, its behavior and effects on the metabolism were analyzed. It was found that the molecule can help in development of drugs that can be beneficial in preventing and treating obesity. The study has been carried out on animals.

Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc. reviewed that Empatic™, the drug in its investigational stage, has proven to reduce the body weight of obese people, who had undergone year-long treatment without any diet and exercise, by 15%. Also, the company has presented some data on Contrave® that shows a 50% reduction in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome, from baseline, in patients of obesity. Both these products, in their development phase, have high potential of solving obesity problems.

Leading pharmaceutical developer Merck & Co., Inc. will not be seeking regulatory approval for taranabant, an investigational drug, for the treatment of obesity. The company is going to discontinue its Phase III clinical development program. The available data from Phase III of the trial indicated that both effectiveness and incidence of adverse events were related to dosage, efficacy being greater and adverse events more in the higher doses. After taking this into account, the company determined that the overall profile of taranabant did not support the case for further development of the medication.

GI Dynamics has announced that the new data on its novel non-invasive device to treat obesity and type 2 diabetes, EndoBarrier™, currently in the clinical trial phase, will be presented soon. The EndoBarrier Gastrointestinal Liner will be a new sign of hope for the 99% of patients qualified as clinically obese and do not want to go for bariatric surgery. The data will be put forward at the International Federation for Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders (IFSO) 13th World Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Researchers at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan have concluded that obese people are more prone to heart attacks than smokers. Cholesterol builds up in the coronary arteries. Fat cells produce inflammatory or other chemicals which prompt the plaque to suddenly break. This causes a blood clot, resulting in a heart attack. A total of 111,847 men and women who had experienced a first heart attack were included in the final analysis. They were grouped according to their body mass index (BMI), a measure of body fat based on height and weight. All the patients, regardless of body size, had about the same level of LDL cholesterol. Smoking rates were equal across the group under examination. This means that excess fat causes heart disease in other ways. While patients with the highest body weight lost 12 years of life, on an average, prior to their first heart attack, smoking they took less than 10 years of life before the first heart attack.

A study conducted by National Jewish Health has found out that steroids (glucocorticoids), the chief controller drug for asthma, are 40 percent less effective in obese patients of asthma than in those of normal weight. Studies have concluded that obesity increases the risk and intensity of asthma. Steroids are meant to raise the level of a molecule known as MAP kinase phosphatase-1. But the blood cells of obese people respond less efficiently to dexamethasone.