Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc. (OREX-NASDAQ), a biopharmaceutical with an initial focus on obesity, has announced that data presented today at the American Diabetes Association 67th Scientific Sessions in Chicago from a sub-study of its Phase IIb multi- center clinical trial of Contrave(TM) demonstrated significant improvements in both visceral fat and insulin resistance.
Contrave is a proprietary fixed dose combination of bupropion sustained release and Orexigen’s novel formulation of naltrexone SR in a single tri-layer tablet. Contrave is designed to act on neurons in the brain with the goal of achieving appetite suppression, decreased food craving, and sustained weight loss.
Across the three Contrave arms, the mean reduction in visceral fat ranged from 13.7% to 16.7% after 24 weeks of treatment compared to a mean 4.6% reduction among the placebo group and the effect of Contrave was substantially larger than that seen with either of Contrave’s individual components when given alone. Additional findings from this sub-study of 107 obese subjects revealed that Contrave improved measures of insulin resistance and demonstrated a positive impact on a number of other risk factors including triglycerides, cholesterol, and blood sugar.
The size of trial sample could be an issue, but this could be one more treatment option for the growing problems of obesity and diabetes. Orexigen (OREX) closed down 9% at $14.29 on Friday after pre-releasing some of this data on Thursday. It has traded in a range of $12.55 to $19.15 since coming public at the end of April. Its market cap is $384 milllion and the two analysts cover it are positive: J.P.Morgan has an "Overweight" rating (no pun intended) and JMP Securities has a "Market Outperform" rating.
Jon C. Ogg
June 23, 2007
Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.
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