Emerging pharmacological approaches to the treatment of obesity

The obesity epidemic has been recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the top 10 global health problems. Worldwide, more than one billion adults are overweight and over 300 million are obese. The majority of developed countries, including the United States, Canada and England are experiencing dramatic increases in obesity. Obesity is a condition associated with the accumulation of excessive body fat resulting from chronic imbalance of energy whereby the intake of energy exceeds expenditure. The excess body fat predisposes an obese individual to chronic diseases, such as coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes and diseases of the gall bladder and cancer. The high incidence of obesity and the lack of safe pharmaceutical agents have fuelled an increase in anti-obesity drug-related research. Although a number of pharmacological approaches have been investigated in recent years, few safe, therapeutically effective products have been developed. This commentary focuses on emerging pharmacological approaches targeted for the treatment of obesity.