Video feature: Developing a treatment for obesity based on natural appetite suppression

Over 30 000 deaths a year are caused by obesity in England alone and yet the need for safe and effective anti-obesity therapies is largely unmet. With funding from the Wellcome Trust's Seeding Drug Discovery initiative in 2007, Professor Bloom and his team have developed a novel, synthetic form of pancreatic polypeptide that can cause a significant reduction in food intake and body weight in mice. The lead compound, PP1420, entered phase I clinical trials in mid2010. If successful, the proposed research may lead to a treatment within five - eight years.