Part 1 NEW YORK About one in five people in the world's richest nation are obese and overweight Americans would probably pay a king's ransom for a pill that could help them look slimmer, feel better and live longer.
Finding the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow is a temptation that is difficult for pharmaceutical makers to resist, even though the road to riches so far has brought many of them disappointment.
They "thought there were a lot of people in America who would be very desperate to get their hands on an anti-obesity drug, but they forgot that you don't just take a pill and lose pounds.
There is not a cure-all and panacea for obesity," Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst James McKean said.
The latest stumble in the history of obesity drugs came in June when Swiss-based Roche Holdings Ltd. warned of slowing second-quarter sales growth for Xenical, its showcase medicine, only a year after its launch.
Some weight-control drugs that have hit the market carry the risk of unpleasant or even dangerous side effects. Others have proven only partially effective as they also involve harsh dietary regimes that patients do not follow for long.
Another issue is that many doctors are reluctant to prescribe drugs to help patients lose weight when dieting and exercise may be the best cure.
Even so, with billions of dollars in sales up for grabs from about 35 million obese Americans and tens of millions elsewhere, the company that develops a safe, effective treatment to help people lose weight knows it will be on to a winner.
In the United States, about 55 percent of the population is above the recommended weight for their height, the National Institute of Health says. The percent of Americans it defines as obese went from 13 in 1991 to about 20 in the mid-1990s.
With the extra weight comes increased risk of hypertension, or high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, gallbladder diseases, osteoarthritis, respiratory problems and certain types of cancer. But even as the number of overweight people grows, a clear winner has yet to emerge in the race to develop safe and effective obesity treatments.
"There is just no easy cure for losing weight," said Neil Sweig, pharmaceutical analyst for Ryan, Beck Co. in New York.
Giants Stumble Knoll Pharmaceutical Co., part of the world's biggest chemical company, Germany's Basf AG, has hit its share of obstacles in trying to tap the anti-obesity market. It is now recovering from disappointing sales and regulatory problems regarding its anti-obesity drug Meridia.
(To be contd.)