Products
The company has one drug on the market, Belviq (lorcaserin), a weight-loss medication. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved lorcaserin on June 27, 2012. The company committed to a sales force commitment of 200.[9] Lorcaserin is approved for use in adults with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater, which is considered obese, or adults with a BMI of 27 or greater and who have at least one weight-related health condition, such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, or high cholesterol. However, sales of Belviq were disappointing. In 2015, the company laid off 80 workers; this was followed in July 2016 by the layoff of another 100 employees (approximately 73% of remaining workforce).[3] In January 2017, Arena announced that it is selling Belviq to its Japanese partner, Eisai Co. Ltd., which will manufacture and market the drug; Arena will draw a royalty on global sales.[10]
The sale completes a pivot in emphasis toward drugs still under development. Drugs in the company's pipeline includes medications designed to treat pain, ulcerative colitis and pulmonary arterial hypertension. As of September 2014, potential products that had not yet been approved by the FDA included Temanogrel (thrombotic diseases), Ralinepag (pulmonary arterial hypertension), APD334 (autoimmune disease), APD371 (pain), and Nelotanserin.[11]
In 2018, Arena's etrasimod, a drug directed at treating ulcerative colitis (and a competitor with ozanimod from Celgene[12]), passed phase II clinical trials successfully and moved on to phase III.[13]
