Weight loss drugs FDA approved hurdle

WASHINGTON - People weight loss drug in a Danish pharmaceutical company has helped me to lose weight, said on Tuesday that state regulators, the company has the latest to press a pharmaceutical cure for the ills of obesity America.

To be Novo Nordisk drug called Saxenda contributed 60 percent of patients lost at least 5 percent of their weight loss and 31 percent more than 10 percent, according to a report Tuesday by employees Food and Drug Administration USA. The agency is also set to decide developed through Thursday on the treatment of obesity by Orexigen Therapeutics.

The pharmaceutical companies are trying to develop new drugs for weight loss, as sales of previously approved obesity pills have short estimates fallen.

Belviq, a drug from Arena Pharmaceuticals and Eisai, was approved in June 2012, the first approved treatment in 13 years. This was followed three weeks later by Vivus of Qsymia. The high cost out of pocket patients kept away, do not meet the sales expectations of analysts.

New treatments may eventually promote acceptance, said Charles Duncan, an analyst at Piper Jaffray.

"It was nearly zero reimbursement for therapy on the basis of the drug. Did a kind of shift of attention to obesity and the benefits of a medicine for that be," he said.

About 50 percent of people with private insurance receive at least some drug coverage plan, Duncan said. But many insurance companies put Qsymia and Belviq in the third installment of the drugs they cover, means that patients pay most of the bill out of pocket.

And not paying government insurance such as Medicare and Medicaid programs for the drug, Duncan said. But he hopes that the cover to expand when the weight loss drug Orexigen, as NB32 name is known approved.

FDA is expected to decide whether Saxenda sale in late October. The drug is known by the chemical name liraglutide, Novo and is sold as a treatment for diabetes was the Victoza of adults to help with blood sugar control in type 2 diabetes.

Liraglutide is associated with an increased heart rate at rest, although the consequences are not clear, the FDA staff said. Qsymia is associated with a risk of increased heart rate, and abnormal heart valves can Belviq, after each of their signs.

Weight loss drugs have a checkered past. The appetite suppressing drug Fen-phen was pulled from the market in 1997, was withdrawn in 2010, Meridia, both for side effects on the heart.