The development of innovative, safe and effective therapeutic options for the treatment of obese patients is both desirable and necessary. Gastric bypass operations are usually effective both short- and long-term but are also not available to or desired by many obese people for a variety of reasons. Gastric banding procedures are also available but have been reported to be less effective than gastric bypass operations. Diets, exercise programs and pharmaceutical agents offer short-term effectiveness for some obese patients but are all too often ineffective in the long term. The ever increasing impact of obesity on morbidity, mortality and accelerating healthcare resource utilization in most developed countries is well documented.