"We're going to have to grow our sales organization in order to support the primary care market," Vivus President Peter Tam said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Vivus had originally planned to market the drug under the brand name Qnexa. However, FDA regulators ordered the company to change the name to avoid potential confusion with similar-sounding drugs.
Rival Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. of San Diego plans to start selling Belviq early next year. A third California drugmaker, Orexigen Therapeutics Inc., is still running clinical trials of its product, Contrave, and is working toward an FDA approval date in 2014.
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