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☆ Pfizer's twice-daily weight loss pill joins a long list of obesity drug flops
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-02 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

That includes Novo Nordisk 's Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic as well as Eli Lilly 's diabetes drug Mounjaro. They have all skyrocketed in popularity — and slipped into shortages — over the last year for safely and successfully causing significant weight loss. But before the current weight loss industry gold rush, the path to treating obesity was strewn with failures dating back decades. In its full-year 2019 earnings, Eisai reported that Lorcaserin had sales of $28.1 million in the U.S. for the year. Sanofi's rimonabantAn obesity drug called rimonabant from Sanofi and Aventis was withdrawn from all markets in 2008 due to the risk of serious psychiatric problems, including suicide.

Persons: Eli Lilly, drugmakers, lorcaserin, Eisai, Lorcaserin Organizations: Getty, Pfizer, Novo Nordisk, U.S, Drug Administration, FDA, Aventis, Abbott Laboratories Locations: U.S, Sanofi

Accounts of suicidal thoughts linked to this class of drugs are drawing increasing scrutiny, including an investigation by European regulators announced in July. More than half of the narrative summaries describe suicidal thoughts appearing shortly after the person started the medicine or increased the dose. Wegovy’s U.S. prescribing label, produced with FDA approval, says suicidal thoughts or attempts have been reported in clinical trials for other weight-loss medicines. Sanofi's Acomplia, which never won U.S. approval, was withdrawn in Europe in 2008 after being linked to suicidal thoughts. She said she has not experienced any suicidal thoughts on that drug.

Persons: Dawn Heidlebaugh, Megan Jelinger, ”, Heidlebaugh, Eli Lilly, Thomas J, Moore, aren't, It’s, Novo, Dr, Erick Turner, Turner, Novo’s, drugmakers, Sanofi's, Sanofi, Contrave, John Amos, Lilly, Reuters weren’t, Lisa Wood, ” Wood, Sarah Sobol, you’re, Sobol, ’ ” Katherine, Jayson Chesnutt, Chesnutt, Robin Respaut, Chad Terhune, Maggie Fick, Ludwig Burger, Michele Gershberg, Brian Thevenot Organizations: REUTERS, Novo, U.S . Food, Drug Administration, Reuters, FDA, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Oregon Health & Science University, Novo Nordisk, U.S ., European Union, European Medicines Agency, U.S, Currax Pharmaceuticals, Vivus, Facebook, Thomson Locations: Findlay , Ohio, U.S, Ohio, Novo, Canada, Europe, Carolina, Buffalo , New York, North Carolina, Indiana

☆ What investors need to know about weight loss medicines and suicide risk
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-16 | by ( Christina Cheddar Berk | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Investors would be forgiven if talk of a potential suicide risk associated with a new class of diabetes and weight loss drugs led to skittishness last week. Prior attempts to treat overweight or obese patients with medications were often plagued with side effects and drug recalls. The first is that most obesity drugs, including GLP-1s, are "centrally acting," which means they work on a patient's brain. The second is that prior obesity drugs have been withdrawn because of high rates of psychiatric disorders, he said, citing Sanofi's Acomplia as one of the more recent examples. This was not the case for the GLP-1 medications.

Persons: skittishness, Eli Lilly's Trulicity, Lilly's, Wolfe, Tim Anderson, Anderson, Sanofi's Acomplia, Eli Lilly, Wolfe's Anderson, Colin Bristow, Lilly, LLY's, Peter Verdult, Wegovy, Verdult, Bristow, Emmanuel Papadakis, Papadakis, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Nordisk's Ozempic, Wall Street, European Medicines Agency, EMA, Wolfe Research, FDA, UBS, Citi, Novo Nordisk, Deutsche Bank, Prevention Locations: United States, U.S

☆ EU probes Novo Nordisk drugs after reports of suicidal thoughts
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Suicidal thoughts are not currently listed as a side effect in the EU product information of these treatments. Side effects have hobbled several previous attempts by the drug industry to develop lucrative weight-loss drugs. Sanofi's (SASY.PA) Acomplia, which never won a U.S. approval, was withdrawn in Europe in 2008 after being linked to suicidal thoughts. New weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy, however, regulate appetite by mimicking a gut hormone, and not directly interfere with brain chemistry. Safety data did not show any "causal association" between the suicidal or self-harming thoughts and the drugs, it added.

Persons: Acomplia, Bhanvi, Ludwig Burger, Savio D'Souza, Nivedita Organizations: European Medicines Agency, EMA, Icelandic Medicines Agency, Novo Nordisk, Thomson Locations: Danish, United States, Europe, Novo, Bengaluru, Frankfurt

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