EnteroMedics,
Inc. (NASDAQ: ETRM) aims to make America leaner and fitter. The company, based
in St. Paul, Minnesota, provides safe, reliable and effective products and
therapies to treat obesity and metabolic disorders. Its signature technology,
the vBloc® vagal blocking therapy delivered via the Maestro® Rechargeable System,
is gaining increasing acceptance both domestically and abroad. vBloc® offers
the overweight and the obese relief from those extra pounds that, all too
often, trigger a variety of problematic medical conditions.
Overweight
and obesity are global problems, but America appears to have taken the cake.
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK),
an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has published
statistics that are quite alarming. ‘More than 2 in 3 adults are considered to
be overweight or obese’ and ‘more than 1 in 3 adults are considered to be
obese’.
Overweight
is excess body weight due to too much muscle, bone, fat or water. Obesity is an
excess amount of body fat. One measure of overweight and obesity is the Body
Mass Index (BMI), which is a person’s weight (in kilograms) divided by the
square of his or her height (in meters). Your weight is considered normal if
the BMI is under 25. Anyone with a BMI over 25 and under 30 is considered overweight.
If your BMI is 30 or over, you are obese.
Extra
weight means extra stress for the vital organs. The liver, heart, kidneys and
pancreas are all adversely affected by visceral fat, the internal fatty tissue
that develops to enfold them. Unlike the benign deposits of fat that lie just
beneath the skin, which shape our figures, visceral fat is highly toxic.
‘Visceral fat has been linked to metabolic disturbances and increased risk for
cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. In women, it is also associated
with breast cancer and the need for gallbladder surgery’, according to this
(http://dtn.fm/tR3tv) Harvard Medical School publication. The NIDDK lists the
health risks of overweight and obesity as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high
blood pressure, nonalcoholic fatty liver disorders, osteoarthritis, stroke and
cancers of the breast, colon, uterine lining and kidney.
Chronic
cases of overweight and obesity are treated by surgery. American Society for
Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) figures, as reported by News Medical
(http://dtn.fm/mM8vM), relate that ‘about 193,000 people had bariatric surgery
in 2014… sleeve gastrectomy was… found to be the most common procedure,
accounting for 51.7 percent of weight-loss operations, followed by gastric bypass
(26.8%), gastric band (9.5%), and biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal
switch (0.4%).’ These are all intensely intrusive procedures with many risks
that may be hard to stomach. Sleeve gastrectomy, for example, is a procedure in
which up to 80 percent of the stomach can be removed.
The
vBloc® vagal blocking therapy from EnteroMedics, Inc. is, on the other hand,
minimally invasive. It is implanted under the skin just outside the ribcage and
involves limited scarring. Recovery time from surgery is short. Some patients
reported having the surgery on Friday and going out to work the following
Monday.
The
vBloc® Therapy works to control sensations of hunger using a pacemaker-like
device. A Briefing Document (http://dtn.fm/gY7a9) on the FDA website indicates
that when the therapy is used for 12 hours per day as prescribed, patients
experienced an average excess weight loss of 28 percent over one year. This was
50 percent more weight loss than patients who did not receive vBloc®.
In
June 2016, EnteroMedics announced a series of successful vBloc procedures at
the Beltline Bariatric and Surgical Group in Atlanta, Georgia. And this week,
it was disclosed that the European Patent Office had issued a Notice of
Intention to Grant a European Patent covering safety features of the Company’s
vBloc® Neurometabolic Therapy System. EnteroMedics, with its vBloc® Therapy, is
beginning to look like a heavy hitter.
For
more information, please visit www.vbloc.com
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MissionIR is committed to connecting the investment community with companies that have great potential and a strong dedication to building shareholder value. We know our reputation is based on the integrity of our clients and go to great lengths to ensure the companies represented adhere to sound business practices.
Sign up for “The Mission Report” at www.MissionIR.com
Please see disclaimer on the MissionIR website http://www.missionir.com/disclaimer.html
