A small British company backed by venture capital, Thiakis, has begun a clinical trial of the diet drug TKS1225, a novel analog of the hormone oxyntomodulin that tricks patients into feeling they have eaten enough and thereby reduces their food intake.

The diet drug was originally discovered by Steve Bloom, Professor of Metabolic Medicine and Head of the Division of Investigative Science at Imperial College London.

While Bloom and his university researchers discovered that injections of oxyntomodulin helped obese volunteers lose weight, the natural hormone was not suitable for commercial development, so Thiakis was created as a spin-off company to develop a synthetic analog.:

“Less than three years later we have an analog, called TKS1225, which is a longer-acting and more potent molecule, and now we are going into the clinic with it,” said John Burt, chief executive and co-founder of Thiakis.

Burt said that because TKS1225 works in the gut, it should not have the psychiatric side-effects that have produced disappointing sales for highly anticipated diet drug Acomplia (rimonabant).