MARIJUANA POINTS WAY TO ANTI-OBESITY DRUG

A marijuana joint might seem an odd starting point in the search for
weight-loss solutions. Yet a new compound switching off the same brain
circuits that make people hungry when they smoke cannabis looks set to
become the world's first blockbuster anti-obesity medicine, with sales
tipped by analysts to top $3 billion US a year.

Sanofi-Aventis SA's Acomplia, or rimonabant, which could be approved
by U.S. regulators as early as next month, is the first of a new wave
of treatments that may spell fat profits for some pharmaceutical companies.

Another two experimental drugs from Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. and
Alizyme Plc. have also produced promising clinical results in recent
weeks, prompting some investors to start laying big bets on
weight-loss medicine.

It is a risky area, however. Slimming pills have had a chequered
history, due to modest effectiveness and adverse side effects -- most
notoriously with the diet drug combination "fen-phen," which was
linked to heartvalve problems and has cost Wyeth more than $21 billion
in provisions related to patient claims. But past upsets have not
deterred drug manufacturers from investing heavily in a new generation
of possible winners. Jonathan de Pass, chief executive of specialist
consultancy Evaluate, calculates there are now 26 new drugs in
clinical trials for obesity and a further 32 in early-stage
development.