Drug Shows Promise of Helping to Lose Weight Without Dieting
An experimental drug designed to relieve depression also shows promise of helping overweight people lose weight without going on diets, its manufacturer says.
The drug, called Prozac, was developed by Eli Lilly & Co. The price of the pharmaceutical firm’s stock rose to $67.125 a share Wednesday, up $7.875, apparently as a result of news about the drug’s potential use in obesity.
Prozac was submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval as therapy for depression. But Lilly’s annual report said the drug “looks promising” for treating other disorders, including obesity.
Even though the annual report was released Feb. 26, the news triggered excitement among investors three weeks later.
Treating Alcoholism
“It’s been well known that Lilly has nearly 1,000 people in clinical trials for uses in obesity and also that they are examining whether it might have some application in alcoholism and other conditions,” said Richard Vietor, a stock analyst at Merrill Lynch in New York.
“That was disclosed in the annual report, and it was disclosed to investors by Lilly management in an open forum about a month ago,” he said. “But it seems to have grabbed today. We don’t really know why.”
Vietor said the drug is expected to be approved for routine use in depression by the end of the year.
Prozac, known generically as fluoxetine, is a “serotonin uptake inhibitor.” Serotonin is a neurotransmitter, a chemical that the brain uses to send signals between nerve cells. The drug seems to work by blocking the brain’s reabsorption of this chemical.
However, the company did not specify how this effect might promote weight loss.
The annual report said that when the drug was tested for depression, many patients lost weight, and the same thing happened during animal studies.
No Dietary Restrictions
“Initial results of carefully controlled clinical trials, which involved more than 900 people, have shown that loss of weight for obese individuals occurred without imposing dietary restrictions,” it said.
At Lilly headquarters in Indianapolis, spokeswoman Patricia Cowall-Hanover refused to disclose further information about the obesity study or say who was directing the research.
