May 12th, 2015
Diet Drug Study Crashes and Burns in the Wake of Leaked Results
Larry Husten, PHD
The ill-fated Light trial, which was supposed to examine the cardiovascular outcomes of the weight loss drug Contrave, a combination of naltrexone and bupropion marketed by Orexigen and Takeda, came to a spectacular halt today. The action was probably inevitable given the extreme controversy generated earlier this year when it became known that Orexigen had widely disseminated results from an early […]
September 11th, 2014
FDA Approves New Weight Loss Drug
Larry Husten, PHD
The FDA announced today that it had approved Contrave, the long-awaited and much-disputed weight loss drug. Contrave is a combination of two drugs already approved for other indications: naltrexone hydrochloride, which is used to combat alcohol and opioid dependence, and bupropion, which is used to treat depression and seasonal affective disorder and as an aid to smoking cessation treatment. […]
September 22nd, 2011
Diet Drugs Get a New Slim Chance at Approval
Larry Husten, PHD
Contrave, the investigational diet pill combination of naltrexone and bupropion, has been granted a possible new lease on life by the FDA. In January of this year, the FDA issued a complete response letter to Orexigen, the drug’s sponsor. Now Orexigen says that it has received guidance from the FDA that could lead to approval of the […]
December 8th, 2010
Third Time’s the Charm: FDA Panel Finally Backs an Obesity Pill
Larry Husten, PHD
Following rejections earlier this year of two previous anti-obesity drugs, the FDA’s Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs advisory committee has recommended approval for Contrave, the combination of sustained-release formulations of naltrexone and buproprion from Orexigen Therapeutics. The committee voted 13-7 in favor of the drug, saying that the benefits of Contrave outweighed its risks. The committee also […]