You’ll find more credibility if you steer clear of the conspiracy theories. Even if you’re right, statements like the one above make it too easy to dismiss you as a member of the tin foil hat brigade. Drug companies don’t need to engage in half cocked conspiracies to keep American’s fat, we do an excellent job of that on their own. They are simply responding to a market.

Note that I’m not saying that we as a society aren’t over medicated, and I’m not in any way trying to give all pharma companies a pass for cases where serious misconduct does exist, but let’s try to resist the urge to make this issue black and white.

You could make a case for this kind of back door influence with agri-business and effect on the USDA and general dietary recommendations. But even this is more a case of their cherry picking the data and marketing only their perspective than an overt conspiracy.

Thanks for clearing up the difference between weight loss drugs and obesity drugs.

Would you be willing to answer some questions about this report as well as the obesity/weight loss drug market in general?

I think your unique perspective would make for an interesting and enlightening discussion.

Understandably, Dr. Parker’s perspective comes from the use of Mediterranean diet. While I would hope that diet be addressed first before clinical intervention, the reality is that, for obesity, it is precisely the point that clinical intervention has become necessary.

The difference between the obesity drug market and the weight loss drug market is that obesity is a clinical condition managed by a physician. The physician may prescribe ethical pharmaceuticals for the obesity (e.g., Xenical/orlistat, Meridia/sibutramine, etc.) and these represent the obesity drug market. The physician may alternatively determine that gastric bypass, roux en y, lap band or a similar bariatric procedure be done. On the other side, the weight loss drug market is the over-the-counter market, representing “diet pills” (these have been recently augmented by the addition of half-dose xenical, which is sold under the name “Alli”).

Weight loss drugs and drugs or devices for the clinical management of obesity are very different markets, the distinction being the physician’s involvement. Pricing, reimbursement and other issues become involved that make the OTC versus clinical so different.

As an aside, you note that RNCOS specializes in a broad range of very unrelated subjects (BioPharma, IT, Telecom, Retail and Service industries). I would not really call that “specializing”.

Unless there is an unlikely major breakthrough.