Pharmacotherapy for obesity: a field in crisis?

Despite the requirement for effective and safe pharmacotherapies to tackle the obesity epidemic, there is currently only one drug, orlistat, licensed for this purpose, but the effectiveness of this drug falls far short of the medical needs. Recent advances in the understanding of energy balance control have highlighted a number of new biological targets for the treatment of obesity. Some pharmacological approaches for bodyweight loss have yielded promising results in clinical trials. However, finding the correct balance between efficacy and safety has proven challenging. Given the high unmet need and our growing understanding of the complexity of bodyweight homeostasis, novel, more efficacious and better tolerated treatments for obesity are clearly required. In this article, we provide an overview of currently available anti-obesity agents, the reasons for the failure of a number of recent drug candidates and discuss future strategies for pharmacological interventions to treat obesity.