The business world is always looking for new ways to address the ever-growing obesity epidemic in America. Here's a rundown of the next round of potential slimming strategies, and the companies whose success could fatten up investors' returns.
If the Affordable Care Act performs as advertised, tens of millions of Americans will benefit directly. But there will be other beneficiaries, too -- and some will make good investments. For example: Weight Watchers.
Every January, we plan to make changes, and we often don't succeed. Let's make this New Year's different: Here are seven fairly simple resolutions recommended by the financial experts for getting you on a firmer fiscal footing in 2012.
Being fat isn't just bad for your health, it's also murder on your wallet. Biggest Loser host Alison Sweeney (who has had her own ups and downs with weight) wants to help. She offers these five tips to help you control your budget and waistline at the same time.
Pharmaceutical companies looking for fresh sources of profit are increasingly investing in a range of health care innovations that aren't drugs at all, from smartphone apps and educational websites to social media platforms and wireless devices, reports Ernst & Young.
Led by the health insurance reform law, a flurry of drug and food recalls, key medical breakthroughs and plenty of layoffs and lawsuits, 2010 proved to be an exciting -- if not always positive -- year. Here's our rundown of the biggest health care stories.
After the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected two other weight-loss pills earlier this year, an advisory panel has recommended the approval of Orexigen Therapeutics's Contrave. If the FDA follows the recommendation, Contrave could become the first diet drug to win approval in a decade.
An FDA panel of reviewers recommended that the administration expand approval for Allergan's Lap-Band, a weight-loss implant that currently is only available for the very obese, to those who are less obese.
Allergan's Lap-Band, a device implanted in the stomach to limit the amount of food that can be ingested, is already on the market to help the very obese lose weight. But now the company hopes to win approval for less obese patients to use the band.
Dieters looking for a little extra willpower to avoid putting junk food in their grocery carts might want to leave their credit cards at home. New research shows that buying groceries with plastic instead of good old-fashioned folding money makes people more likely to buy unhealthy foods.
Drug and medical-device maker Abbott Laboratories announced Friday that it will voluntarily withdraw its controversial obesity drug Meridia, (sibutramine) from the U.S. market at the request of the FDA, due to concerns it increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
The N.J. Supreme Court gave a win to advocates of truth in advertising this week when it ruled that lawsuits against the maker of dietary supplement Relacore could go forward as a class action. Considering the way such lawsuits work, gaining that status is almost as important as the final verdict.
The New England Journal of Medicine called Meridia "another flawed diet pill" -- two weeks before government advisers are scheduled to review the drug -- after a study finds it raises the risk of heart attack and stroke in users with heart problems.
Pharmaceutical company Vivus is getting hammered in Friday tading, sinking more than 50% in the wake of Thursday's vote by an FDA advisory panel against approving its weight-loss drug, Qnexa, based on safety concerns.
Pharmaceutical company Vivus and investors waited anxiously Thursday for the vote of an FDA advisory panel on the weight-loss drug Qnexa. The verdict is in, and by a vote of 9 to 7, panelists didn't support approving the drug as an obesity treatment.
Arena Pharmaceuticals shares are soaring over 20% in afternoon trading. Arena released study results Wednesday showing its obesity drug lorcaserin helped patients lose weight and keep it off.
An expert panel will review Vivus' potential blockbuster drug Qnexa on Thursday, with the FDA making a decision in October. The FDA acknowledges the drug's effectiveness in cutting weight, but Qnexa will certainly draw scrutiny over its side effects.
In spite of all the attention on weight gain from health and diet industries, public policies and the news, U.S. obesity rates keep rising. A new study finds that those rates grew in 28 states last year, only declining in one place -- the District of Columbia.
