AMA's obesity ruling could inspire new drug efforts

The AMA's decision to classify obesity as a disease is a direct attempt to persuade biopharma companies to develop new therapies by making it harder for payers to decline coverage while applying pressure on the FDA to approve more drugs faster. And that could provide a serious incentive for the obesity therapies already in development while making the preclinical work in the field more attractive to Big Pharma companies--which have largely avoided the field after witnessing repeated marketing debacles for unsafe meds. Report