Obesity drug discarded after being tied to patient deaths

John Gregory | | Health Exec | Economics

Boston-based biotech company Zafgen has scrapped plans to bring binge-eating disorder treatment beloranib to market after two patients in clinical trials died after developing blood clots in their lungs.

The Food and Drug Administration placed the trials on hold, and Zafgen has decided it would be cost prohibitive to restart them, so it’s laying off a third of its staff and focusing on other research.

For more on what went wrong with a once-promising treatment, click on the link below: 

https://www.statnews.com/2016/07/19/zafgen-obesity-deaths/

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John Gregory, Senior Writer

John joined TriMed in 2016, focusing on healthcare policy and regulation. After graduating from Columbia College Chicago, he worked at FM News Chicago and Rivet News Radio, and worked on the state government and politics beat for the Illinois Radio Network. Outside of work, you may find him adding to his never-ending graphic novel collection.

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