September 19, 2014
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc. , in light of approval of its weight loss drug Contrave (naltrexone hydrochloride/buprion hydrochloride), has announced pending marketing efforts for the drug. In 2010, San Diego, Calif.-based Orexigen and Takeda Pharmaceutical, headquartered in Osaka, Japan, entered into an exclusive partnership to develop and commercialize Contrave in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Under the agreement, Orexigen received upfront cash payment of $50 million for Takeda; Takeda was granted exclusive marketing rights for the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Orexigen held the right to co-promote the drug in the U.S.
For the professional/physician market, Takeda will provide samples, speakers and 900 sales representative. Some of the reps will make Contrave-focused visits, and others will present Contrave in conjunction with discussions about Takeda’s diabetes drugs. The company’s payer group will initiate talks with insurers.
The launch date for the drug has not been specified, but is expected to start this fall. Takeda’s Director of Obesity Marketing Katie Andino indicated that Contrave will most likely be added to insurance formularies before 2015.
In an interview with Medical Marketing & Media, Andino said that the company plans to take a unique approach to reaching out to patients, physicians and payers. She said they will focus on patients “who are ready to go on Contrave, [and] are in the right frame of mind” to take the medication while making appropriate lifestyle changes that include diet and exercise. Their approach will also include mobile behavior modification resources, although details are yet to be disclosed.
The market for an effective obesity drug would seem to be large, with more than 79 million adults in the U.S. diagnosed with obesity. Despite that, similar drugs, such as Qsymia, sold by Vivus, Inc., and Belviq, manufactured by Eisai Co., Ltd., which were both approved in 2012, have been slow to catch on. In a conference call, Orexigen’s chief commercial officer, Mark Booth, called the U.S. a “large, rapidly growing, and a vastly underserved market.”
“When used as directed in combination with a health lifestyle that includes a reduced-calorie diet and exercise,” said Jean-Marc Guettier, director of the Division of Metabolism and Endocrinology Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, “Contrave provides another treatment option for chronic weight management for people who are obese or are overweight and have at least one weight-related health condition.”
