Orexigen Therapeutics praises new research report on obesity prevention policies

Regarding the report "The Long Term Returns of Obesity Prevention Policies" unveiled this week by the Campaign to End Obesity (CEO), Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: OREX) issued the following statement:

Orexigen commends CEO as well as the author of the report, Alex Brill , and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) who funded the report, for this new research illustrating the importance of long-term budget impact analyses on preventive health policies, specifically those aimed at obesity. With obesity contributing over $200 billion annually to healthcare spending, Orexigen agrees that policymakers need thorough budgetary analyses that capture short and long-term impacts of obesity policy. A longer view may enable policymakers to have more information when making legislative decisions. Brill noted that the largest budgetary benefits from reducing the burden of obesity would be federal savings within the Medicare and Medicaid programs that would result from avoiding obesity-related diseases and co-morbidity.

"Today's report supports our belief that, while there are substantial near-term benefits of weight loss for obese patients, an even larger value should accrue to individuals and societies when health improvements are assessed over a longer period of time," said Orexigen CEO, Michael Narachi .

The report's author, Alex Brill , is a Research Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and formerly counsel to the Simpson-Bowles Deficit Reduction Commission and chief economist and policy director to the House Ways and Means Committee. Mr. Brill also served on the President's Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush . Mr. Brill has worked on a variety of economic and legislative policy issues, including dividend taxation, the alternative minimum tax, international tax policy, social security reform, defined benefit pension reform and U.S. trade policy.

The report may be found at the Campaign to End Obesity's website http://obesitycampaign.org/research.asp

SOURCE Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc.