Metabolism.

Diabetes is marked by abnormally high blood glucose levels which, if left untreated, can lead to serious complications including death. Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for approximately 90% of diabetes, was previously found nearly always in adults, but can now be found in pediatric populations. There are ≈26 million Americans that have type 2 diabetes and there are a total of ≈312 million people who have type 2 diabetes on a global basis.

Pre-diabetes is a state where blood glucose levels are elevated above normal ranges, but have not yet reached the point where the patient is considered diabetic. Pre-diabetics are at great risk for developing diabetes. There are ≈86 million adults in the US who have pre-diabetes.

Obesity is a major risk factor for developing pre-diabetes and diabetes. Approximately 85% of type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese. Losing weight is clearly beneficial for both pre-diabetic and diabetic subjects. For instance, 5-7% weight loss can prevent conversion from pre-diabetes to diabetes in ≈58% of patients. Given the costs associated with treating diabetes, a safe, effective treatment that could cause weight loss in pre-diabetics would not only have a potentially major impact on human health but may also result in tremendous savings for the healthcare system.

More than two thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. On a global level, more than 1.9 billion adults are overweight, of whom 600 million are obese. Current approaches to treating obesity include surgery and drugs, which have unwanted adverse events and/or limited efficacy. Due to the safety profile of current interventions, we believe that doctors are particularly reticent to prescribe these therapies to their patients. Our view is that a clear unmet need exists for safter and more efficacious therapies to induce weight loss in overweight and obese patients.

Reference Resources
*Obesity Society. Retrieved Jun. 2015 from http://www.obesity.org/
*World Health Organization. Retrieved Jun. 2015 from http://www.who.int/en/
*International Association for the Study of Obesity. Retrieved Jun. 2015 from http://www.iaso.org/