Cannabinoid CB1 receptor antagonists

Summary

Product description

The Competitive Intelligence Report Cannabinoid-1 (CB1) Receptor Antagonists as of November 2008 provides a competitor analysis in the development pipeline of novel CB1 receptor antagonists for treatment of obesity, type 2 diabetes and CNS diseases.

First generation cannabinoid type 1 (CB1) receptor antagonists are directed against CB1 receptors in the brain and in peripheral tissues such as adipocytes. Acomplia (rimonabant) from Sanofi-Aventis is the only representative of this class of CB1 antagonists so far approved. While the FDA rejected approval due to an unfavourable risk-benefit ratio, The EMEA first approved it, but only for treatment of obesity. Quite recently, the CHMP of the EMEA recommended to suspend marketing of Acomplia due to an increased risk of psychiatric disorders observed in post-marketing studies. Sanofi-aventis may continue its huge phase III program of rimonibant for treatment of type 2 diabetes in which it is interested in order to overcome the reimbursement problem for the life-style indication obesity.

Sales of Acomplia in 2007 for obesity just were EURO 79 mln. Interestingly, Merck & Co. also recently discontinued development of taranabant due to a very small therapeutic window. Nevertheless, there are still nine other different CB1 antagonists in clinical development. Ongoing preclinical research and development has identified non-brain penetrating, only peripherally acting CB1 antagonists which might be able to avoid the psychiatric side effects and better suited for treatment of diabetes and, thereby, solve the reimbursement problem.

The report provides a compilation of current active and discontinued projects in research and development of novel CB1 antagonists. Competitor projects are listed in a tabular format providing information on:

• Drug Codes,
• Target / Mechanism of Action,
• Class of Compound,
• Company,
• Product Category,
• Indication,
• R&D Stage and
• Additional comments with a hyperlink leading to the source of information.

Contents

• Index
  • CB1 Antagonists for Metabolic Diseases
  • CB1 Antagonists for CNS Diseases
  • Corporate CB1 Antagonist R&D Pipelines
  • About La Merie