Nearly 500 million adults worldwide are obese—close to 10
percent of men and 14 percent of women, an incidence twice as
high as in 1980, according to the World Health Organization.
Obesity, defined as a body mass index of 30 or greater, has been
linked with higher rates of serious illnesses such as cancer,
heart disease, arthritis, and diabetes. But an obesity drug
hasn’t been approved in the United States since 1999. The
regulatory environment for this class of drugs remains extremely
tough following high-profile failures in the 1990s. For example,
the infamous fen-phen drug combo caused life-threatening side
effects and became one of a number of approved drugs removed
from the market because of health concerns. “Obesity is the
toughest market to get into,” says Praful Mehta, a senior
analyst from IHS Global Ltd., a market research company. This is
in part because obesity is not an immediately life-threatening
disease, so side effects that are acceptable for the treatment
of diseases like cancer are unaccept