"Drug Makers Race to Cash In on Fight Against Fat"

The Sunday, April New York Times has a front page story headed, "Drug Makers Race to Cash In on Fight Against Fat."

We read:
"From pharmaceutical giants to tiny start-ups, the industry is spending billions of dollars developing obesity drugs. An estimated 200 possibilities are now in the research pipeline or under test among patients at dozens of clinics...

"Some drug makers say they are tackling fat in response to public health warnings of a national obesity epidemic -- one that has been linked to diabetes, heart disease and other conditions and now accounts for more than $100 billion of the United States' $1.8 trillion annual medical bill. The obese are defined as those with a so-called body mass index of 30 or more.
By that measure, obese people now make up one-third of the adult population.

"But many drug industry analysts see a potentially even bigger market if such a drug also catches on among the more than 60 percent of adults in this country who are statistically overweight, those with a body mass index of 25 or more. Many experts also see a likelihood -- some would say danger -- that such a drug might appeal to millions who are by no means fat but would like to drop a few pounds."

We are reminded that "the fen-phen prescription drug combination was popular during the mid-1990's, until it was found to damage patients' hearts."
And we are warned:
"Despite the industry's risks, some medical experts worry that drug makers'
big investments in obesity research will prompt companies to seek the broadest possible payback through the same type of aggressive promotion to doctors and consumers that helped turn the arthritis drugs Celebrex and Vioxx into widely prescribed general painkillers. Those drugs were taken by tens of millions of people before their safety risks became clear.

We read about a hairdresser who supposedly "tried everything" such as "Weight Watchers. A diet of cabbage soup. Even a four-day regimen of cauliflower, beets and hot dogs."

And we read:
"Scientists seem to agree that, while some people are programmed to be thin and others are destined to be overweight, obesity is partly an environmental condition. Most Americans work in sedentary jobs, arriving and leaving via door-to-door transportation. At the same time, they are constantly confronted with cheap, high-calorie food."

We also read about animal testing for obesity drugs:

"Researchers at Rockefeller University in Manhattan thought they had cracked the code in 1994 with leptin, a protein found to be lacking in some obese rats. When injected with leptin, the rats became thin. Amgen, the big biotechnology company, invested millions in leptin research, but the rodent results could not be duplicated in humans."

Indeed each one of the 200 possibilities now in research, if it looks at all promising, will be tested on animals.

At the close of the article we read: "Articles in this series will periodically examine causes, costs and possible cures for obesity, one of the nation's major preoccupations. An audio report by Stephanie Saul and additional photographs are online at nytimes.com/business."

The article and series open the door for letters from people who stay slim and healthy on plant-based diets.

You can read the full article on line at http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/03/business/03fat.html and send a letter to the editor at: letters [at] nytimes.com

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Shorter letters are more likely to be published.


(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets.
You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)