Will This New Obesity Drug Top Expectations or Disappoint?

The Motley Fool's health-care show Market Checkup focuses this week on obesity, one of America's largest health-care concerns. Recently classified as a disease, obesity leads to serious health problems including diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Currently 35% of adults in the U.S. are classified as obese, but more troubling, one out of three children is as well. All told, obesity adds $190 billion in medical costs to the system, but efforts to tackle this growing problem are increasing.

In this video, health-care analysts David Williamson and Max Macaluso discuss Arena Pharmaceuticals, maker of Belviq, the first new obesity drug approved in more than a decade. Arena just launched Belviq after a long period of DEA scheduling, but can it avoid the pitfalls and struggles that have weighed heavily on its chief competitor? Watch and find out.

Rising health-care costs continue to be a hotly debated topic, and even legendary investor Warren Buffett called this trend "the tapeworm that's eating at American competitiveness." To learn more about what's happening to the health-care system -- and how to potentially profit from this trend -- click here for free, immediate access.

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The article Will This New Obesity Drug Top Expectations or Disappoint? originally appeared on Fool.com.

David Williamson, Max Macaluso, Ph.D., and The Motley Fool have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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