As an investor and writer with no financial stake in any of the companies involved, watching the message board battles between Arena (ARNA) and Vivus (VVUS)
shareholders is good theater. Both companies have FDA-approved drugs on
the market that are effective in helping obese people lose weight, but
neither Arena's Belviq nor Vivus's Qsymia look like "the one obesity
drug to rule them all". Belviq is hampered by modest efficacy, while
Qsymia can produce scary side effects and has a more limited marketing
effort behind it.
Quite frankly, though, the Arena-versus-Vivus
battle may ultimately be just the undercard for the real battle. A
private biotech company by the name of Zafgen has drug in
clinical testing that has shown very impressive efficacy and solid
safety, and happens to work by a completely different mechanism than
biotech and pharma companies have pursued so far. While Arena and Vivus
likely have at least three years before Zafgen's drug becomes a clear
and present danger, investors in those companies may want to consider
the risk that their parties could be brought to a premature end if
Zafgen can continue to produce such strong data.
Please continue to the full piece here:
Forget Arena Vs. Vivus - Zafgen May Be The Ultimate Winner
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