Arena narrows loss as Belviq sales pick up

Arena Pharmaceuticals ($ARNA), developer of the weight-loss drug Belviq, is not exactly getting fat off of its sales, but it is making progress. With a marketing push from partner Eisai behind it, the drugmaker more than doubled the revenue it earned from Belviq in the last quarter but reported a Q3 loss of $10.7 million, or $0.05 per share. It reported that Eisai sold $16.8 million worth of Belviq in the third quarter. Arena had $5.2 million in Belviq revenues, more than double the $2 million in the same quarter a year ago. Eisai has added 200 sales reps to help in the effort. In a conference call it said prescriptions were running more than 5,000 a week in the last quarter. Release | More