1. Medtronic: We found this to be far and away the most interesting booth, well positioned at the entrance. This was one of the few booths actually staffed by representatives from the company, rather than staff members from the exhibition hall merely handing out literature; no doubt the extra effort was put in to raise awareness about Medtronic’s new gastric pacing device. The “Transcend Implantable Gastric Sensor” was on display, and we eyed the device carefully, an implantable pulse generator that delivers “small bursts of electrical pulses through the lead to the stomach wall.” Yes, an obesity pacemaker, it would seem! Medtronic acquired Transneuronix for $260 million (plus many incentives) in July, having worked with the smaller company on device production since 2001. The device is approved for use in Canada and Western Europe. It is not yet approved for use in the U.S. You can learn more about it at http://www.medtronic.com/obesity/.
Back to “Transcend”: The clinical studies appear to have been done in patients with enormously high BMIs: a small four-patient study enrolled patients with BMIs ranging from 52 to 58. A pilot study of 10 patients included those with BMI >40. Rates of weight loss were given as percentage of excess weight lost (EWL) and were at about 25%. The larger post-marketing trial in Europe, which has enrolled 47 patients, has demonstrated progressive weight loss: 21% EWL at six months, continuing to 33% EWL at 36 months.
Research into the mechanism of action is ongoing. Gastric pacing works by stretching the stomach to induce early satiety. There is also hypothesized to be an effect on hormones (leptin, CCK, GLP1, ghrelin) and brain signaling, though the information on this is vague.
2. Abbott: Abbott’s booth featured information on sibutramine, or Abbott’s Meridia. According to the Abbott staff at the booth, many healthcare professionals are using sibutramine but not all know about it yet. It’s unclear whether increased awareness will increase sales of what seems to be a drug with mediocre efficacy, but then, sibutramine does not currently have much competition. Abbott brochures boast “7 years experience with nearly 15 million patients worldwide!” At six months, patients have lost a mean of 26 pounds with a range of 9 to 70.6 pounds. We want to know more about the patient who lost 70 pounds.
3. sanofi-aventis: The fact that this booth had no company personnel was surprising, but the exhibition hall hirees gave out thick packets on “cardiometabolic disease and adipose tissue: understanding the link.” The company certainly has communicated its message about metabolic syndrome during this conference, and the obesity audience seems well primed for the launch of rimonabant. Now - we're eager to see what happens at panel ...
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