New Weight Loss Drug May Curb Obesity

Researchers at the University of Indiana are testing a drug that may someday curb obesity. The drug has proven to reduce the bodyweight of mice by 25 percent in one week’s time, and researchers hope that it will do the same for humans.

The drug combines two hormones that are key in regulating glucose and appetite. When they gave mice a daily dosage of this combined drug, the mice lost an average of 28 percent of their body weight in one month.

Lead researcher, Dr. Richard DiMarchi, says that these results point to a multiple drug approach to fighting obesity.

Their next step is to test these drugs on humans, where the weight-loss possibilities could equal those of gastric bypass surgery. But researchers urge caution. Drug that look promising when tested on mice, they say, frequently fail in some manner when tested on humans.

But researchers have reason to hope that this drug will test well on humans. Its active ingredients are already present, and on the market, in two drugs—Byetta and Glucagon—approved by the FDA to treat diabetes.

Researchers hope to develop this drug into a weekly injection for humans—a weight-loss injection.

The details of their study are in the journal “Nature Chemical Biology.”