Gelesis makes anti-obesity progress

Xconomy's Luke Timmerman reports some progress in this war on hunger with Boston-based Gelesis, which develops a capsule that swells in the stomach, making people--or, at least, rats so far, feel full.

One hot area of obesity research is to attack the problem at one of its sources. Our own hungry stomachs. Make us feel full all the time, and maybe we'll be less likely to pounce on the junk food, or overeat. Xconomy's Luke Timmerman reports some progress in this war on hunger with Boston-based Gelesis, which develops a capsule that swells in the stomach, making people--or, at least, rats so far, feel full.

Gelesis--the 2010 Fierce 15 Readers' Choice winner--says it was surprised that the full feeling lasted 18 hours in rats, although Timmerman cautions that there are "many other weight loss drugs have been tripped up by safety concerns" before being tested in humans.

"We are definitely looking at further clinical trials that will build on this data," Eric Elenko, a partner at Puretech Ventures, and a co-founder and a director of Gelesis, tells Xconomy. "The rat data is particularly promising."