Time To Toss Your Fat Pants

While a local drug company's obesity drug does show some promise, it may be too soon to buy a Size 2.

The Associated Press reported that shares of Arena Pharmaceuticals plunged Monday as a late-stage study showed its obesity drug fell shy of a proposed Food and Drug Administration standard.The stock fell $1.37, or 30 percent, to $3.13 in midday trading.

Early Monday, the San Diego-based company said lorcaserin met the study's weight-reducing goals in a late-stage study. While the results partly met FDA benchmarks, they still fell shy of a proposed FDA guideline, the key measurement for much of Wall Street as competition in obesity drugs grows.

What the hell does that mean? Cut out the egghead analysis and what you're left with is the fact that about half the people who took the drug lost at least 5 percent of their body weight, which sounds good to a lot of people.

The company met all study goals and another key FDA benchmark for weight loss. In December, though, Mountain View, Calif.-based Vivus reported a difference of 7.5 percentage points for its developing obesity drug Qnexa in a late-stage study.

Arena, meanwhile, still has another pivotal late-stage study for lorcaserin, with results expected in September. All three companies are expected to continue releasing late-stage study data in 2009.

Arena Chairman and Chief Executive Jack Lief brushed aside concerns of the one FDA benchmark, saying the drug's positive study data and safety results will make it a key product when approved.

"Physicians will use the drug because they feel it is well tolerated and patients will stay on it long enough to lose a meaningful amount of weight," he said.

The biggest issue for physicians, he added, will be finding a drug that benefits most patients in a reasonable period of time, with the least side effects. Lorcaserin, he said, is poised to meet those criteria on the market.

Analysts, overall, agree that the drug is poised for FDA approval.