The obesity drug market will increase more than six-fold over the next decade, increasing from $420 million in 2010 to $2.6 billion in 2020 in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Japan.

Decision Resources, a research and advisory firm for pharmaceutical and health care issues, found market growth will be driven by the rapid uptake of novel emerging agents and the high prevalence of obesity.

The findings from the Pharmacor topic entitled Obesity reveal that a significant unmet need remains for agents that can induce satisfactory weight loss. Physicians and patients alike consider the weight-loss efficacy of the current market leaders—Roche's Xenical, GlaxoSmithKline's OTC Alli and the generic agent, phentermine—to be unsatisfactory. However, the 2012 launch of Vivus's Qnexa will help fulfill the need for more efficacious agents, owing to its weight-loss efficacy which is superior to currently available options, and this will result in blockbuster sales for this agent.