NYT: Drug Makers Race to Cash In on Fight Against Fat (1/3 of pop. obese)

[DeepModem Mom]

Drug Makers Race to Cash In on Fight Against Fat
By STEPHANIE SAUL

Published: April 3, 2005


LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The L-Marc Research clinic stands at the geographic center of an American epidemic, where the meat-and-potatoes Midwest meets the chicken-fried South, and just across the street from a McDonald's.

The clinic is a leading recruitment post in the drug industry's multibillion-dollar war on fat. Desperate to be thin, overweight people eagerly respond to L-Marc's local newspaper ads for volunteers to test experimental weight-loss drugs. For each trial, the clinic is forced to turn away dozens of volunteers....

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Many drug makers, too, are seeking that magic pill. 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 like L-Marc, according to MedMarket Diligence, a health care research firm.

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....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/03/business/03fat.html?pagewanted=all&position=

[firefox]

1. Now all the pill companies need is a law against fat people

It should not be hard for their bought and paid for representatives to whip up a bill for them to profit by. They might even let them print money with currency called a Pharmaceutical note.