Posts Tagged ‘FDA’

FDA today approved the first new medical device for the treatment of obesity in more than a decade, the EnteroMedics Maestro VBLOC system. An FDA advisory committee issued a split, but positive decision on this device last June, concluding it offers benefits which outweigh its risks. The VBLOC system works by blocking impulses of the […]

With the books closed on FDA obesity approvals for 2014, the scorecard shows drugs coming out ahead of devices by a margin of two to nothing. Both Contrave (buproprion/naltrexone) and Saxenda (liraglutide) won final approval for treating obesity in the second half of 2014. Left waiting on the sidelines was the Maestro VBLOC device, which […]

We knew it was coming, we just didn’t know when. And then, just as everyone was off to focus on the holiday, came the announcement from FDA — liraglutide approved for obesity. One might think of this as a tardy approval or an early Christmas gift. FDA had been due to approve it by October […]

In 2014, more than 80,000 readers consumed the stories we published every day here at ConscienHealth. The New York Times and the New England Journal of Medicine clearly have nothing to fear, but it amazes us that a growing number of people seek out the admittedly esoteric stuff we’re writing. Thanks for making it worth […]

FDA will today unveil their final rules for labeling calories everywhere that food is prepared and served away from home. Within a year, you will be seeing calorie counts in restaurants, vending machines, delis, bakeries, pizza joints, and even the prepared food departments in grocery stores. Cranking out these rules has taken almost five years. The […]

Investing in obesity seems like it ought to be a rewarding proposition. So why is it so messy for so many investors? Are we on the brink of better results for investing in obesity? So far, the news has been decidedly mixed for people in businesses related to the surge in obesity rates. Food companies whose brands are […]

For people favoring innovation in the treatment of obesity, we passed an important milestone last week. A headline in the Financial Times yesterday made it unmistakable: “U.S. More Open to Obesity Drugs” That headline summarizes an interview with Lars Sorensen, CEO of one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, Novo Nordisk. Last week an expert […]

Late yesterday, Contrave became the third new obesity treatment to be approved by FDA in the last two years. All three of these drugs went through FDA advisory committee hearings in 2010. At the time, Contrave was the only one of the three that the expert panels recommended for approval. Yet in 2011, FDA ruled that […]

FDA (the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, not Fuji Dream Airlines) has set two big milestones for this week in obesity. They both fall on Thursday. Though the real Obesity Week is not until November 2, FDA is creating its own version this week. The first is a bit of old business that is really […]

In a week of much news about e-cigarettes, the American Heart Association (AHA) has carefully conceded that e-cigarettes might have a role as a last option for quitting smoking. Specifically, the AHA statement says: If a patient has failed initial treatment, has been intolerant of or refuses to use conventional smoking cessation medication, and wishes […]