The Scandanavian drug company Neurosearch has announced that they will present their annual report on the 10th of March. The company is expected to announce not only positive results from their trials into a treatment for Huntingdon’s disease, but progress in their trials for the obesity drug Tesofensine.
Tesofensine is likely to considerably boost the company's profile, as well as its market worth, as trials continue. Already data from early stage trials showed that patients taking the highest doses of the drugs lost up to 12.8kg over the course of treatment, twice what people taking Reductil lost in clinical trials.
Researchers first became aware of the drug when they were running trials into its effects on patients with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. They noticed that patients experienced unexpected weight loss and so trials were launched into its potential as a weight loss drug.
The medication works by changing how three chemicals, noroadreneline, dopamine and serotonin, send messages to the brain. They reduce appetite and improve sensations of being full, which make patients more likely to eat less.
It is believed that of three doses of the medication which have been trialled, the middle dose has the best results, achieving optimum results while causing the least amount of side effects. Reported side effects have included dry mouth, nausea and blood pressure increases at the highest dose.
If the medication continues to be successful in trials, then there will be a considerable market for it. Obesity is a growing worldwide problem, with 1 in 3 Britons expected to be overweight by 2012. Recently Reductil, also an appetite influencing medication, was withdrawn from sale, meaning that there is a considerable unfilled demand for a product that would support obese patients' efforts to eat less.
However the drug is not expected to complete clinical trials and be approved for a few years, though investors will be keen to hear Neurosearch’s update on progress.