San Diego based biotech company Arena’s promising anti obesity drug lorcaserin (Lorqess) has been met with disapproval from the FDA, who have turned down the manufacturer’s application for marketing the drug, saying more clinical trials in this respect are required.
Studies of the drug conducted on lab rats showed that when very high doses were administered, the rats were seen to have higher rates of cancer.
Also the efficacy of the drug was seen to be “marginal”, which was part of the reason for the FDA not approving the drug.
Since the manufacturer Arena was not able to prove that the rat studies were not relevant to human use, more clinical testing of the drug will be required before it is made available for sale to help people lose weight.
Though this is a setback for the manufacturers as well as the consumers who may have been hopeful of having an efficacious weight loss remedy available to them, the FDA had already indicated their concerns about the drug’s possible negative impact.
The company has said that the issue will be addressed as soon as possible though in the recent past, anti obesity drugs have encountered a lot of problems in terms of side effects of the drugs and consequent law suits.
