Knoll's High Hopes For Its Obesity Drug Sibutramine

Knoll Pharmaceuticals, a division of Germany's BASF group, has greatconfidence in its new drug sibutramine for the management of obesity. The product was approved for marketing in the USA in late 1997 (Marketletter December 1, 1997), where it will be launched as Meridia, probably in the second quarter of this year.

For Clinical Obesity Only Because of the recent problems in the USA - by far the largest market for antiobesity products - with other centrally-acting anorectics such as phentermine and fenfluramine/dexfenfluramine (Marketletters passim), Knoll stressed at a press lunch that it will do its best to stop any "cosmetic" use of the drug; it will be available through hospitals and clinics for the treatment of clinical obesity only. By this it means that only people with a body mass index of over 27, coupled with a comorbidity condition, will be eligible for treatment with the drug.

The company estimates that US sales could reach $500 million within three or four years, Peter Wakeford, managing director of Knoll Pharmaceuticals, told the Marketletter. This figure seems to be in line with some analysts' estimates, though higher than others' forecasts.