Obesity is considered to be caused by an imbalance in individual energy.
The basic therapies for obesity are appropriate dietary restriction for the purpose of
decreasing energy intake and effective exercise for the purpose of promoting energy
expenditure. At present, drug therapies for obesity are secondary treatments.
Therapeutic strategies using pharmacotherapy are divided into the following three
types: 1) suppressing appetite, 2) inhibiting nutritional absorption, and 3) accelerating
energy expenditure. Mazindol and Phentermine have long been recognized as drugs for
increasing satiety, and Orlistat and Cetilistat have been developed as drugs that inhibit
lipid absorption from the intestine. Moreover, ß3 agonists have been developed to
accelerate energy combustion. In this chapter, we first introduce drugs that are on the
market, after which drugs that are in clinical or preclinical stages of development will
be introduced. Furthermore, obese animal models that are now available will be
introduced in the last section.
Keywords: Animal model, Anti-obesity drug, DGAT inhibitor, MGAT inhibitor,
MTP inhibitor, Obesity.
