BioCentury
ARTICLE | Regulation

Obesity upswing

Obesity: Political efforts, escalation at FDA revive Orexigen's Contrave

September 26, 2011 7:00 AM UTC

While much of the last year has been bad news for obesity companies, the swift application of the appeals process at FDA looks to have paid off for Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. and its obesity compound Contrave naltrexone/bupropion. Meanwhile, positive safety data could be enough to get Vivus Inc.'s Qnexa phentermine/topiramate over the approval hurdle in 2012.

Last week, Orexigen said it agreed with FDA to conduct a smaller cardiovascular outcomes trial of Contrave and rule out a lower degree of risk than the agency initially requested...