Clinical trial success rates of anti-obesity agents: the importance of combination therapies

Obesity is a growing problem in the developed world and it is associated with numerous health problems. Can drug therapy address this problem? Former ROP student Hadia Hussain tackled this question while working with MBioTech’s Jayson Parker. Hadia’s paper “Clinical trial success rates of anti-obesity agents: the importance of combination therapies” was recently published in Obesity Reviews.  This paper quantified the risk of drug failure during clinical trial for new drugs given on their own vs combinations of drug. She found that a new drug to treat obesity had a failure probability of 92% and that success could be increased 10 fold if a combination of medicines was tested instead of individual agents. Hadia is currently working in the hematology/oncology department at the Hospital for Sick Children as a database administrator and plans to pursue a masters in public health (with a focus on health policy management). Congratulations Hadia!!!