Dr. Jeffrey Friedman Discusses Obesity and His Discovery of Leptin

Dr. Jeffrey Friedman, award-winning scientist who discovered leptin, recently sat down to be interviewed as part of the “Giants in Medicine” series. Friedman, who grew up in New York City, first came to science from a medical background. While he was in medical school, he realized he didn’t want to be a doctor. A series of happenstance events placed him in a laboratory on a “gap year”, studying addiction and how it relates to molecules.

He says, “At the time, I was in a bit of a quandry. All my colleagues were out practicing, starting their lives, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.” However, after some soul searching, he joined the phD program at Rockefeller. The ob/ob mouse fascinated him, and he worked to discover why this particular mutation had occurred. What he found, in the end, was leptin, a hormone that regulates food intake and even plays a role in obesity.

Friedman points out that, while leptin could potentially be used as a treatment for obesity, the answer is more complicated. Leptin simply allows people to maintain a relatively healthy weight. Some people, who are leptin-deficient, lose weight when given leptin treatments. “Normal” people, however, who do not have that mutation, may become leptin-resistant, which is harder to treat. Friedman says, “We have this biological system that maintains body fat within a particular range. In the ob mouse and similarly affected humans, there’s a mutation in the gene so there’s no signal that’s ever generated that there are adequate fat stores and animals and humans who have leptin mutations overeat voraciously. In both cases, if you replace the leptin the body weight normalizes. So, leptin as a treatment for leptin deficiency is very robust.”

Friedman explains that “Most obese humans and most obese animals are obese for other reasons that lead them not to be leptin deficient, but rather, leads them to be leptin resistant.” He says that lower doses of leptin may be more effective than larger ones, and that combining leptin with amylin, another hormone, could be most effective.

When asked about the obesity epidemic, Friedman says, “Whether or not there’s an obesity epidemic depends on how you look at the data.” He points out that, while the increase in obesity rates is a medical condition that needs to be addressed, the data may be sensationalized. He explains that when you assign a fixed point to obesity, that any shift in this data would lead to a seemingly-large shift. He says, “Over the same intervals where obesity rates are said to increase over ⅓, you see maybe a 7 to 10 pound weight change.”

And what advice does Friedman offer to those who may be obese? “Eat a heart healthy diet, exercise, and if you are overweight and have a co-morbidity, do your best to lose a modest amount of weight - say, 7 - 10 pounds, because that’s often enough to improve your health.”

Rodman & Renshaw on Amylin: Bydureon Posts Flat NRx Market Share, While GLP-1 TRx Grow Over 5% Sequentially (AMLN)

Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMLN) is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to improving lives of patients through the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative medicines. The company is particularly focused on the therapeutic potential of new peptide hormone drug candidates and the creation of novel and groundbreaking therapies for the treatment of diabetes, obesity, and other metabolic diseases.

Rodman & Renshaw has released a report on Amylin, assigning it a Market Underperform/Speculative Risk with a $22 target price. 

Analyst Michael G. King writes, 

"We maintain our Market Underperform rating and a $22 target. We continue to believe our skepticism is justified given the company’s history of poor execution and the most recent quarter’s fair-to-middling (in our opinion) results. We continue to believe the exenatide franchise is unwanted by those who already have a presence in the diabetes space and a sub-optimal set of assets for those companies to gain a presence in the diabetes/metabolic disease space. In our opinion, AMLN management would have done well to accept the BMY offer of $22 per share; justifying our price target on the shares."

Read the full report below.  

Rodman renshaw report on amln 5 14-12

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Piper Jaffray on Insulet Corp - $PODD: "Growth Balanced by Near-Term Risk: Initiate at Neutral"

Insulet Corporation (NASDAQ: PODD) is an innovative medical device company based in Bedford, Massachusetts. It was founded in 2000 with the mission of improving the lives of people with diabetes. Specifically, through its revolutionary OmniPod Insulin Management System, Insulet seeks to expand the use of insulin pump therapy. The OmniPod is a discreet and easy-to-use system that eliminates many of the issues associated with conventional pumps. Improvements include OmniPod's lack of tubing; automated, virtually pain-free insertion; and two straightforward parts that communicate wirelessly. By breaking down the barriers to insulin pump therapy, Insulet hopes to provide both a superior treatment option and life-long health benefits for people with diabetes. 

Our Daily Dose Thoughts: The Diabetes and Metabolic Disease area remains a vast and great unmet medical need. PODD is an exciting play in the Type 1 diabetes space. We are also watching other names in this area such as Islet Sciences (ONCE) which if successful in the cell therapy side of type 1 diabetes (this is encapsulated porcine cells) has potential to totally change the way we approach type 1 diabetes.

Piper Jaffray has issued a company note on Insulet. The report states: 

"As one of only a few pure plays in the diabetes device market, Insulet offers the only tubeless patch pump in the US, with roughly 10% overall market share. We see the opportunity for patch pumps as still in early stages of adoption, and view 2012 as a transition year for PODD. The potential Q2 launch of the company’s next generation OmniPod® should provide enhanced patient benefits and adoption of the device, as well as increased product margins. However, the oft delayed product does not yethave final FDA approval. Once approved, we believe high volume manufacturing and customer conversion activities add additional short term investor risk. Given uncertain timing of launch events we rate PODD Neutral with a $21 price target, pending better visibility on timing for the conversion to the next gen product."

Read the full report below. 

Piper Jaffray company note on insulet corp 3 22-12

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Rodman & Renshaw initiate coverage of Affymax - $AFFY: Outperform rating, $20 target price

Affymax, Inc. (AFFY) is a biopharmaceutical company committed to developing novel drugs to improve the treatment of serious and often life-threatening conditions. The company’s product candidate, peginesatide (formerly known as Hematide™), has been investigated in Phase 3 trials for the potential treatment of anemia associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD). A New Drug Application (NDA) for peginesatide for the treatment of anemia associated with CKD in adult patients on dialysis is currently being reviewed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Rodman & Renshaw has initiated coverage of Affymax, giving it an "Outperform" market rating and a price target of $20.

The report states: 

"AFFY is on the brink of FDA approval and launch of its non-EPO erythropoiesis stimulating agent (ESA), peginesatide (previously known as Hematide) for use in the treatment of severe anemia in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) currently on dialysis. In our view, approval is likely by the product’s PDUFA date of March 27, 2012. Upon approval, AFFY will begin to chip away at Amgen’s (AMGN, Not Rated) 20-year monopoly over the dialysis space."

Daily Dose Comment: The market is so ready for an EPO alternative. This is worth watching.

Read the full report below. 

Rodman renshaw report on affy

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Biotech Stock Mailbag: Xoma's Big Backers, FDA Approvals Contest - $XOMA

XOMA Corporation (NASDAQ: XOMA) is a biotechnology company focused on the discover and development of monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics.  

 

XOMA’s world-class monoclonal antibody technologies have contributed to the development of marketed biologics with a total of more than $1 billion in annual sales and for which XOMA received substantial royalties. The company also has a strong track record of product discovery and development collaborations with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and the U.S. government, and has licensed certain of its fundamental technologies to numerous pharma and biotech companies. 

 

At TheStreet.com, senior columnist Adam Feuerstein wrote an article in answer to a reader's question: "Why is Xoma up 50% for the month?" 

 

Feuerstein explained that the stock rose because "Baker Bros., a well-respected and closely followed health-care hedge fund, bought half the Xoma deal" of $40 million financing that was announced on March 6. 

 

He continued,

"The question you're probably asking now is, "Wait a second -- Xoma? What the hell can Baker Bros. see in Xoma?" [I wondered the same thing.] Xoma is apparently getting a new lease on life, thanks to a top-to-bottom restructuring -- a new CEO and chief medical officer, cost cutting and a new business model. Xoma is still developing the same lead drug XOMA 052 (given a new name, gevokizumab) but money-wasting efforts in diabetes and cardiovascular indications have been shelved in favor of clinical trials for Behcets uveitis and non-infectious uveitis -- both diseases of the eye.

 

A phase III study of gevokizumab is expected to start this summer with data likely available by the end of 2013."

 

Daily Dose: We spoke with an analyst who covered Xoma for years. The analysts shared with us, that the indication "Behcets uveitus" has promising data.  Xoma has managed to stay alive since the dawn of biotech and sooner or later, this stock should work.

Read the full article at TheStreet.com.