The new anti-obesity drug, Beloranib, has shown promising results in clinical trials for its ability to burn fat,reduce bad cholesterol levels in the body but also decrease inflammation areas in the body too.
In speaking of their intention of releasing a ground-breaking drug such as this one, one of the investors, Kevin Starr says, “It’s not just about ‘x’ percent weight loss. It’s making a change in the fundamental underlying metabolic disease that will probably go on to reduce the cost of the healthcare system and save lives of these patients.”
Speaking of groundbreaking, the drug departs from the approach of traditional drugs as it targets an enzyme called MetAP2, which controls the release of fatty acids. Others usually take the approach of targeting a person’s appetite and which discourages them from food consumption in the process. But that’s not all – an increase in metabolism then causes the body to burn off excess fat as fuel.
It is why industry experts are saying that Beloranib could be the first ‘blockbuster’ weight loss drug that could easily hit $1 billion in annual sales.
As for the effectiveness of this drug, initial results have shown participants losing 22 pounds of weight over the 12-week period. This is encouraging for the simple reason that its results can be compared with gastric bypass and laparoscopic surgery which usually have patients lose 40% to 65% of their excess weight in a year.
With that said, since the drug does not focus on the brain’s hypothalamus like other obesity drugs do, side effects that come with this drug include nausea, vomiting and sleep disturbance.