Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ARNA), VIVUS, Inc. (VVUS): Can the Newly Discovered Obesity Genes Help You Lose Weight?

Responders
The new information on genes involved in obesity could potentially help those drugs already on the market, because the drugs seem to affect patients differently.

For instance, in two combined studies of Belviq, 22.4% of the patients lost at least 10% of their body weight, compared with just 8.7% in the placebo group. The drug clearly works really well on some patients but much less so in others — the mean weight loss for the entire population was just 5.8%.

It seems possible that the responders have a different genetic makeup that causes them to respond to the drug. If researchers can find the gene — perhaps one of the ones recently linked to obesity — doctors might be more inclined to prescribe the drug, since they’ll have confidence that the drug will help the patient.

Segmenting the population would reduce the potential market size, but it might increase the usage of the drug, because the increased weight loss would justify the potential side effects. Companies could also justify charging more for their obesity drug if it was clear the drug was going to produce a substantial weight loss, which is a precursor to other diseases.

Until that happens
It’ll be years before drugmakers might find a genetic connection for their responders and prove it in a trial — if they want to even bother — and even longer to develop a new drug based on the new proteins involved with obesity.

Until then, investors’ only option to take part in the obesity market is to buy shares in Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARNA), VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS), or Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:OREX). Unfortunately, Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARNA)’s Belviq and VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS)’ Qsymia are far from achieving their blockbuster potential; the companies have struggled to get doctors to prescribe the drug and patients to pay for them. Contrave isn’t even on the market yet, because the Food and Drug Administration made Orexigen run another study.

They may be blockbusters someday — there’s certainly potential given the 60 million obese Americans — but it could take years for doctors to feel comfortable prescribing drugs to the masses. Persuading insurers to pay for them has been easier than in the past, but they’re still a long way away from gaining coverage seen for a typical drug.

The article Can the Newly Discovered Obesity Genes Help You Lose Weight? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Brian Orelli.

Fool contributor Brian Orelli has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Johnson & Johnson.

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