to look better, or to improve your outcomes decades from now. Now there’s a clear medical reason to lose weight now, and that’s to improve your diabetic symptoms.”
Arenas says, however, that unlocking the potential riches of the obesity market has been more of a technical than regulatory challenge. Luke highlighted such technical hurdles facing obesity drugs in a recent post about San Diego-based Amylin Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:[[ticker:AMLN]]), in which an Amylin executive explained that the most-prescribed drug for weight-loss is a generic from the 1950s that suppresses appetite yet leads to such side effects as anxiety and sleep loss. Luke’s story also points out that there have been high-profile failures in developing and marketing anti-obesity drugs, for instance the once-popular fen-phen combination treatment, which was eventually linked to cardiovascular side effects that have cost drug company Wyeth $21 billion in legal settlements.
Yet such compromises and outright failures underscore the opportunity to explore new approaches to helping patients drop pounds. Below are some of the local firms doing just that (as always, write us at [email protected] com if we’ve left any off). To be sure, this surge of local innovation in obesity treatments could take several years to bear fruit in the form of marketed products. But at least for now the chubby mice from Charles River Labs can look forward to losing some weight.
Elixir Pharmaceuticals
Cambridge, MA
Elixir’s lead drug candidates are for Type 2 diabetes, but the biotech has preclinical research of molecules that it says could be used to treat obesity. Among those potential weight-loss drugs are modulators of sirtuins, which are enzymes believed to play a key role in metabolic function. Yet another local developer of sirtuin modulators, Sirtris, hasn’t pursued development of a weight-loss drug, Sirtris CEO Christoph Westphal told me in September.
Escoublac
Cambridge, MA
Housed in the Biogen Idec Innovation Incubator, Escoublac is investigating potential obesity treatments based on discoveries from Columbia University Medical Center. As Bob wrote, the startup is working to commercialize the research of Columbia geneticist Gerard Karsenty and his discovery that a protein produced in bones can regulate fat storage and other metabolic functions in the body. This could also lead to treatments for Type 2 diabetes.
Gelesis
Boston, MA
Though Rebecca and I both tried, we weren’t able to get Xconomist Daphne Zohar to discuss the science behind Boston biotech startup Gelesis, a developer of anti-obesity drugs, which her firm PureTech Ventures and Israeli R&D company ExTech Bio Solutions founded in 2006. What we do know about the firm is that it has attracted some local bigwigs as scientific advisors. They include Massachusetts General Hospital gastroenterologist Lee Kaplan, who directs the hospital’s Weight Center and studies the effects of bariatric surgery, and cardiologist Elazer Edelman, director of the Harvard-MIT Biomedical Engineering Center.
GI Dynamics
Lexington, MA
GI Dynamics is developing a pliable sleeve-like device that can be inserting into the small intestine via the mouth, offering an alternative to surgical options such as gastric bypass. The company has recently shown positive results from clinical trials of the device as a treatment for Type 2 diabetes and as a weight-loss measure. Company CEO Stuart Randle tells us his team plans to begin discussions with the FDA next year about the design of a pivotal clinical trial for obesity.
RXi Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:[[ticker:RXII]])
Worcester, MA
Drawing on new understanding of genetic underpinnings of obesity, RXi is developing RNAi-based drugs that silence genes linked to weight gain. Boasting Nobel Laureate Craig Mello among its co-founders, RXi formed as a subsidiary of Los Angeles’ CytRx (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CYTR]]) in January 2007. The company is pursuing several uses of RNAi, including the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders.
Syndexa Pharmaceuticals
Cambridge, MA
Syndexa is developing drugs to target protein functions in cells that could treat obesity as well as other metabolic disorders such as Type 2 diabetes. The biotech startup, which announced its existence last fall, has licensed patents based on research by Gokhan Hotamisligil of Harvard School of Public Health and patents from the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, CA. Luke detailed the startup’s financing activities in May.
Zafgen
Cambridge, MA
Backed by Third Rock Ventures and Atlas Venture, this startup has licensed patents from Children’s Hospital Boston to develop drugs that stymie the growth of blood vessels in fat tissue. Luke profiled Zafgen in September when the company announced the appointment of its first permanent CEO, Tom Hughes, a former executive at the R&D operations of Novartis in Cambridge.
