We describe here a new potential therapeutic agent that is the result of an academic collaborative drug discovery effort carried out at the University of Michigan. Our studies on elucidating the role of NFkB in insulin resistance and macrophage activation led to the identification of Ikke and TBK1 as potential targets for therapeutic intervention in obesity and type 2 diabetes. We performed a high throughput screen searching for inhibitors of these kinases, evaluating a group of 175,000 compounds that included a collection of approved drugs. Interestingly, the most potent and specific inhibitor discovered was amlexanox; an older drug originally developed in Japan for the treatment of asthma and allergic rhinitis, and later in the US for aphthous ulcers, but without a well understood mechanism of action. It has been in use since 1987, and has a favorable side effect profile.