New Obesity Findings Has Been Reported by Investigators at University of Colorado (Progress and challenges in anti-obesity pharmacotherapy)

Pharma Business Week

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Pharma Business Week -- Researchers detail new data in Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases and Conditions - Obesity. According to news reporting from Denver, Colorado, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, "Obesity is a serious and growing worldwide health challenge. Healthy lifestyle choices are the foundation of obesity treatment."

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from the University of Colorado, "However, weight loss can lead to physiological adaptations that promote weight regain. As a result, lifestyle treatment alone typically produces only modest weight loss that is difficult to sustain. In other metabolic diseases, pharmacotherapy is an accepted adjunct to lifestyle. Several anti-obesity drugs have been approved in the USA, European Union, Australia, and Japan including sympathomimetics, pancreatic lipase inhibitors, GABA A receptor activators, a serotonin 2C receptor agonist, opioid antagonist, dopamine-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists. These drugs vary in their efficacy and side-effect profiles but all provide greater weight loss than do lifestyle changes alone. Even though obesity is widespread and associated with adverse health consequences, and anti-obesity drugs can help people to lose weight, very few patients use these drugs partly because of concerns about safety and efficacy, but also because of inadequate health insurance coverage. Despite great advances in our understanding of the biology of weight regulation, many clinicians still believe that patients with obesity should have the willpower to eat less. The tendency to hold the patient with obesity responsible for their condition can be a barrier to greater acceptance of anti-obesity drugs as appropriate options for treatment. Physicians should be comfortable discussing the risks and benefits of these drugs, and health insurance companies should provide reasonable coverage for their use in patients who are most likely to benefit."

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: "Although few promising antiobesity medications are in the drug-development pipeline, the most promising drugs are novel molecules that are co-agonists for multiple gut hormones including GLP-1, glucagon, and gastric inhibitory peptide."

For more information on this research see: Progress and challenges in anti-obesity pharmacotherapy. Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, 2018;6(3):237-248. Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology can be contacted at: Elsevier Science Inc, 360 Park Ave South, New York, NY 10010-1710, USA (see also Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases and Conditions - Obesity).

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting D.H. Bessesen, University of Colorado, Sch Med, Denver Hlth Med Center, Div Endocrinol Metab & Diabet, Denver, CO, United States.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587%2817%2930236-X. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Keywords for this news article include: Denver, Colorado, United States, North and Central America, Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases and Conditions, Health and Medicine, Nutrition Disorders, Diet and Nutrition, Health Insurance, Pharmacotherapy, Overnutrition, Bariatrics, Hormones, Glucagon, Therapy, Obesity, University of Colorado.