On January 5, Zafgen, a start-up pharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced positive results of its first human testing of a drug designed to fight fat.
On January 5, Zafgen, a start-up pharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced positive results of its first human testing of a drug designed to fight fat.
The drug, named ZGN-433, was tested on 24 obese women, and caused them to lose, on average, a kilogram a week for a month, with no harmful side effects. Detailed results will be reported next week at a conference on obesity in Keystone, Colorado.
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Science and technology magazine New Scientist called the results "stunning," especially as the women ate normally and were not put on an exercise program, and the drug's safety results were at a "maximum rate." The results are also nearly as effective as gastrointestinal bypass surgery, reported the magazine, adding that "many companies are searching for drugs to combat the rich world's obesity epidemic, but the researchers say no other tested so far has worked as well."
One of the challenges in losing weight is that fat causes your body to lose sensitivity to the hormone insulin, which promotes the burning of fat and blocks its synthesis. Yet Zafgen claims the new drug blocks an enzyme called MetAP2, which has been shown to encourage the inhibitions of several key genes that activate other genes that boost insulin resistance, overproduce fat, and cause inflammation, all problems linked with obesity.
No news is available as to when the drug might become available to the public, and the company aims to encourage the drug be used alongside a healthy diet and exercise program.
Last year, a European Union medicine watchdog called for removing a weight-loss drug called sibutramine off the market over fears of increased heart attacks and strokes when taking the drug. Sibutramine is contained in medicines including Reductil, Reduxade and Zelium, which are aimed at helping weight loss in overweight patients with other conditions such as diabetes.
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