Trading Halted in Orexigen Therapeutics

Trading in Orexigen Therapeutics

is halted by NASDAQ. News is pending on the company. Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc. (Orexigen) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of pharmaceutical product candidates for the treatment of obesity. Its combination product candidates targeted for obesity are Contrave which has completed Phase III clinical trials, and Empatic, which has completed Phase II clinical trials. Contrave is a combination of two drugs, bupropion and naltrexone, in a sustained release (

) formulation. Bupropion is a prescribed antidepressant and smoking cessation medication; naltrexone is a treatment for alcohol and opioid addiction. Empatic is a combination of bupropion SR and zonisamide SR. Zonisamide, in a release formulation, was approved in the United States for the adjunctive treatment of partial seizures, a form of epilepsy. These product candidates regulate appetite and energy expenditure through the central nervous system (

).