Hopes that a new slimming pill may soon hit the market have been raised after the pharmaceutical company Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. announced that their new medication Contrave had met their clinical trial goals.The company, based in San Diego, have seen their shares soar by 25% since they announced the positive results. 48% of those patients lost as least 5% of their body weight, while only 16.4 taking the placebo drug achieved the same result. In another trial, 58% of patients taking the slimming pills at the same dose as before achieved at least 5% weight loss, compared to 17.4%.The slimming tablets combine two medications that are already in common usage. Wellbutramin is an anti-depressant that it also known as bupropion; naltrexone is an opiod blocker that is used to combat addictions like alcoholism. The company have said that the clinical trial results gathered over the three stages of tests support their decision to file for FDA approval early next year. They have been heartened by the fact that the medication has exceeded the benchmarks set by the FDA to test if diet pills work.This specifies that any new slimming tablets must show at least 5% point difference between the weight loss experienced by the group taking the medication and those taking the placebo.For Contrave, the group taking the slimming pills at the main dose had a mean weight loss of 6.1%, compared to 1.3%. In a research note, analyst Natixis Bleichroeder Cory Davis said that "The numbers indicate to us that the drug is both approvable and commercially meaningful."Contrave is one of a few new diet pills that are currently undergoing clinical trials. Vivus is developing Qnexa, which combines phentermine - a diet medication that was recalled over a decade ago - and an epilepsy drug. Pharmaceutical firm Arena are also trialing diet pills based on a serotonin activator, similar to the pill fen-phen. Orexigen have also been running tests to see how diabetes patients respond to the slimming tablets and have also said that key secondary goals, including whether there was an improvement in cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors like waist circumference and cholesterol, were met.Their chief executive Mike Narachi said that they were delaying applying for official FDA approval so that they would have time to compile a "quality" new drug application.
Commentaires