Dieters may find some welcome assistance
from a new nasal spray that could help resist the appetizing
aromas of cinnamon bun stands, pizza parlors or tempting
bakeries.
Compellis Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, Massachusetts said
it will begin human trials next year of a nasal spray designed
to fight obesity by blocking the senses of smell and taste. It
won a patent for the product this month.
"The pleasurable effect of eating is all stimulated by
smell and taste," Christopher Adams, the company’s founder and
chief executive, told Reuters on Tuesday.
"The premise is that olfactory activity that controls both
smell and taste is a trigger and a feedback mechanism to eat.
If you have some kind of reduced sense of smell or taste, you
tend to eat less," he said.
The product, known as CP404, is among the latest devices
and treatments under development in the multibillion-dollar
fight against obesity.
An estimated 65 percent of adult Americans are overweight
or obese, putting them at higher risk of heart disease,
diabetes and other conditions that account for more than $100
billion of the country’s $1.9 trillion annual healthcare bill.
French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis began marketing its
obesity pill Acomplia in Britain in June and expects to receive
U.S. government approval by April to sell the drug in the
United States. The pill switches off the same brain circuits
that make people hungry when they smoke cannabis.
Medtronic Inc., the world’s biggest maker of medical
devices, is developing a battery-powered gastric pacemaker that
causes the stomach to contract, sending signals of satiety to
the appetite center in the brain.
Enteromedics Inc. of Minneapolis is working with the Mayo
Clinic on a device known as "Maestro" that uses electricity to
paralyze the stomach, reducing or stopping contractions that
churn food as part of the digestion process.
Those last two devices, like CP404, are still years away
from reaching consumers.
TO SEEK FDA APPROVAL
Adams said he would seek Food and Drug Administration
approval in about three years after human trials begin in 2007.
He also expects to tap the stock market to raise $25 million to
$50 million in an initial public offering if human trials are
successful, with the spray expected to hit the market in 2010.
The nasal spray treatment would retail at $500 to $1,000 a
year.
The Obesity Action Coalition, a Tampa, Florida-based
nonprofit organization, cautioned that any such spray should be
accompanied by other treatments and a change in lifestyle to be
effective.
"There are a lot of reasons why obesity exists, and it’s
not always a case of food addiction," said James Zervios, a
spokesman for the coalition.
"People still need to eat. Every time they get hungry I
don’t think they could just use the spray," he said. "People
need to be taught what are the better foods to eat -- what’s
high on protein, what’s low on fat."
Bariatric surgery, including gastric bands like the
Lapband, is the only effective permanent solution, doctors say.
Gastric bypass surgery makes the stomach smaller so patients
can eat less and cuts out a long stretch of small intestine so
fewer nutrients are absorbed.
But the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a unit
of the federal government’s Public Health Service, has warned
that four of every 10 patients who undergo weight-loss surgery
develop complications within six months.
