Arena Pharmaceuticals Announces Positive Lorcaserin Pivotal Phase 3 Obesity Trial Results: Meets All Primary Efficacy and Safety...( - Lorcaserin Very Well T...),Health

- Lorcaserin Very Well Tolerated Throughout Two-Year Study

- Conference Call Scheduled for Today at 8:30 a.m. EDT

SAN DIEGO, March 30, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARNA) announced today positive top-line results from BLOOM (Behavioral modification and Lorcaserin for Overweight and Obesity Management), the first of two pivotal trials evaluating the safety and efficacy of lorcaserin for weight management. Statistical significance (p<0.0001) was achieved on all three of the hierarchically ordered co-primary endpoints for patients treated with lorcaserin versus placebo. Treatment with lorcaserin was generally very well tolerated. An assessment of echocardiograms indicates no apparent drug-related effect on the development of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-defined valvulopathy over the two-year treatment period.

Primary Endpoint Analysis

The hierarchically ordered endpoints were the proportion of patients achieving 5% or greater weight loss after 12 months, the difference in mean weight loss compared to placebo after 12 months, and the proportion of patients achieving 10% or greater weight loss after 12 months. Compared to placebo, using an intent-to-treat last observation carried forward (ITT-LOCF) analysis, treatment with lorcaserin was associated with highly statistically significant (p<0.0001) categorical and average weight loss from baseline after 12 months:

• 47.5% of lorcaserin patients lost greater than or equal to 5% of their body weight from baseline compared to 20.3% in the placebo group. This result satisfies the efficacy benchmark in the most recent FDA draft guidance.
• Average weight loss of 5.8% of body weight, or 12.7 pounds, was achieved in the
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