Obesity Drugs Progress on FDA Green Light for Treatments: Health
This article is for subscribers only.
Obesity drugs are getting a lift after years of languishing even as populations around the globe get heavier. Rather than pharmaceutical giants, it is small companies with an appetite for risk leading the charge.
Plagued with failures and side effects, drug development in obesity slowed to a near halt in the last decade as most large pharmaceutical companies abandoned efforts, leaving smaller biotechnology companies to forge ahead. This year, after 13 years with no new drug approvals, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared two medicines for obesity, kick starting what many hope will be a rejuvenation for the field.