5 ms·

Obesity Pill Passes First Human Trial

14 points by cwan 17y ago

ableal 17y ago
> Obesity Pill Passes First Human Trial Comes out alright. (Go ahead, shoot me - but first flag this also.)
- carbocation 17y ago
  I'm not going to flag this story, because I find this pill to be a clever hack. It's basically an end-run around gastric bypass, if they can get its properties right. It takes up stomach volume, which is a really useful way to promote satiety thanks to the presence of stretch receptors there. If it works, it could seriously reduce the number of dangerous procedures for obesity treatment and replace them with a simple volume-filling pill. The battle of willpower not to eat instead becomes the battle of willpower to remember to "volume up" before eating so you feel full faster. This would be amazing for patients. I'm not convinced this will work as planned, but am excited that people are coming up with clever, relatively low-risk approaches like this. Eventually one might just work.
- swombat 17y ago
  Why do you feel this story should be flagged? It's technology-related, involves a (biotech) start-up, and could impact a significant percentage of HN readers' personal lives. Seems like the ideal HN story...
  - ableal 17y ago
    Looks like one of those general interest stories you can find in any newspaper, put out by PR to prop up the company. No technical details, secret sauce, seems similar to just filling up with gelatin, except in expensive pills. Not really 'hard biotech', not worth the attention, in short. P.S. Yesterday, for instance, I voted up that 'paid comments' site link, not because I think it's a good idea, but because it might generate some interesting comments. I don't think it's the case with this, or economics/etc discussions which quickly degenerate into pointless squabbling. Been around that block with Usenet, and the experience hasn't improved - nowadays there's not even killfiles, and the reading is slower. Not looking good.
yanowitz 17y ago
I wonder if this really works long term, how people's leptin resistance confounds its efficacy, etc. I still remained shocked at how effective carb restriction is, assuming you swap in lots of protein and fat from non-processsed food sources. The hassle is that it takes more time to construct meals, etc., but if you eat less than 40g of carbs a day, you can eat to satiety and lose weight with relative ease (at least, I did, as did many other people I know, so sample size of n=~8, obviously, not conclusive).
- msluyter 17y ago
  Add +1 to your sample size. I cut out all grains at the beginning of this year and effortlessly lost about 30 lbs.
  - abrown28 17y ago
    I weighed 320 pounds when I cut out carbs. I lost approximately 5 pounds a week until I got down to 275 at which point I couldn't stand it any more and pigged out on donuts.
JeremyStein 17y ago
What happens if you swallow a dozen of these?
- swombat 17y ago
  The same thing that happens when you eat an overly large volume of something else, I would imagine: you throw up.
  - hugh3 17y ago
    If the pill genuinely expands 100-fold in your stomach then I can see it being worse than throwing up. Either it might suck all the fluid out of your stomach, in which case you won't be able to throw up, or it might fill your stomach so rapidly that you can't bring them all up in time. Of course I'm sure that the consequences of overdose are something the researchers have thought about carefully and probably tested on animals by now.
    - rsheridan6 17y ago
      You should be able to throw up even if it sucks the fluid out of your stomach. The muscles would still work, and the stuff should be slimy enough that it's not going to scratch up your esophagus.
allenp 17y ago
The pill works by expanding to make you feel full (100-to-1 ratio claimed). Here is a link to a 4min animation and a 1 minute live video (pill in glass of water): http://www.gelesis.com/content/technology/ http://www.gelesis.com/content/technology/
- ja27 17y ago
  April Fools Day will never be the same again.
- JeremyStein 17y ago
  Thanks for the link to the video. I had imagined it acting like expanding polyurethane foam. I see it looks more like mush, which doesn't seem as dangerous.
stavrianos 17y ago
Artificial roughage. Nice.
BearOfNH 17y ago
(1) Create low-cost Italian tourism agency (2) Get pill approved in Italy while U.S. bureaucrats fight over who has jurisdiction to approve (3) Profit!

14 points by cwan 17y ago

ableal 17y ago

> Obesity Pill Passes First Human Trial Comes out alright. (Go ahead, shoot me - but first flag this also.)

carbocation 17y ago
I'm not going to flag this story, because I find this pill to be a clever hack. It's basically an end-run around gastric bypass, if they can get its properties right. It takes up stomach volume, which is a really useful way to promote satiety thanks to the presence of stretch receptors there. If it works, it could seriously reduce the number of dangerous procedures for obesity treatment and replace them with a simple volume-filling pill. The battle of willpower not to eat instead becomes the battle of willpower to remember to "volume up" before eating so you feel full faster. This would be amazing for patients. I'm not convinced this will work as planned, but am excited that people are coming up with clever, relatively low-risk approaches like this. Eventually one might just work.
swombat 17y ago
Why do you feel this story should be flagged? It's technology-related, involves a (biotech) start-up, and could impact a significant percentage of HN readers' personal lives. Seems like the ideal HN story...
- ableal 17y ago
  Looks like one of those general interest stories you can find in any newspaper, put out by PR to prop up the company. No technical details, secret sauce, seems similar to just filling up with gelatin, except in expensive pills. Not really 'hard biotech', not worth the attention, in short. P.S. Yesterday, for instance, I voted up that 'paid comments' site link, not because I think it's a good idea, but because it might generate some interesting comments. I don't think it's the case with this, or economics/etc discussions which quickly degenerate into pointless squabbling. Been around that block with Usenet, and the experience hasn't improved - nowadays there's not even killfiles, and the reading is slower. Not looking good.

yanowitz 17y ago

I wonder if this really works long term, how people's leptin resistance confounds its efficacy, etc. I still remained shocked at how effective carb restriction is, assuming you swap in lots of protein and fat from non-processsed food sources. The hassle is that it takes more time to construct meals, etc., but if you eat less than 40g of carbs a day, you can eat to satiety and lose weight with relative ease (at least, I did, as did many other people I know, so sample size of n=~8, obviously, not conclusive).

msluyter 17y ago
Add +1 to your sample size. I cut out all grains at the beginning of this year and effortlessly lost about 30 lbs.
- abrown28 17y ago
  I weighed 320 pounds when I cut out carbs. I lost approximately 5 pounds a week until I got down to 275 at which point I couldn't stand it any more and pigged out on donuts.

JeremyStein 17y ago

What happens if you swallow a dozen of these?

swombat 17y ago
The same thing that happens when you eat an overly large volume of something else, I would imagine: you throw up.
- hugh3 17y ago
  If the pill genuinely expands 100-fold in your stomach then I can see it being worse than throwing up. Either it might suck all the fluid out of your stomach, in which case you won't be able to throw up, or it might fill your stomach so rapidly that you can't bring them all up in time. Of course I'm sure that the consequences of overdose are something the researchers have thought about carefully and probably tested on animals by now.
  - rsheridan6 17y ago
    You should be able to throw up even if it sucks the fluid out of your stomach. The muscles would still work, and the stuff should be slimy enough that it's not going to scratch up your esophagus.

allenp 17y ago

The pill works by expanding to make you feel full (100-to-1 ratio claimed). Here is a link to a 4min animation and a 1 minute live video (pill in glass of water): http://www.gelesis.com/content/technology/ http://www.gelesis.com/content/technology/

ja27 17y ago
April Fools Day will never be the same again.
JeremyStein 17y ago
Thanks for the link to the video. I had imagined it acting like expanding polyurethane foam. I see it looks more like mush, which doesn't seem as dangerous.

stavrianos 17y ago

Artificial roughage. Nice.

BearOfNH 17y ago

(1) Create low-cost Italian tourism agency (2) Get pill approved in Italy while U.S. bureaucrats fight over who has jurisdiction to approve (3) Profit!