No, I'm not "tooting" because I'm on Alli.

Following is another post from the old ARNA board on Yahoo, where I discussed the Acomplia results a year ago, in response to a skeptic about Lorcaserin. I think there are some much more effective diet drugs on the horizon.

"You're too pessimistic about ARNA. Everything is proceeding reasonably well, the only current delay is getting the OK from the FDA to move ahead with the APD125 phase 2. Lorcaserin is on track to start phase 3 this year, as are the two partnered programs, as is the anticoagulant program. Sanofi's rimonabant, the weight loss therapy that ought to pose the greatest competition to Lorcaserin, is held up at the FDA and my bet it's a safety issue, given all the publicity regarding Vioxx, Tysabri, and others. I think it's probably the depression signal seen in the the trials. Here's how I think about it....the THC in marijuana is a CB1 agonist, and causes euphoria (the "high") and the "munchies". Rimonabant is a CB1 antagonist and promotes less food intake (weight loss) and apparently depression in some sensitive individuals. In the recent, published study, there was a depression rate of 3% in the patients given 20 mg of rimonabant daily. I think that's too high to be acceptable, although it's possible it will eventually be marketed in the US with a black box warning. Other competition includes the companies developing PYY3-36, AMLN's Symlin + Leptin combination looks exciting in pre-clinical studies, and certainly others as well.

Regarding the current stock price, I'm not worried. The market moves up and down in the short term due to anxieties and enthusiasms of market timers and daytraders and institutions that have to show quarterly results, but long term changes are due to fundamentals and these are more predictable. .... If one were to buy and hold ARNA now, I am fairly confident it would be an excellent decision in the long term."

RE42