Frost is flab's new enemy with his diet drug bet

Phillip Frost at 78 isn't your usual Florida retiree. Rather than spending his days playing golf and relaxing, the billionaire former chairman of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd has embarked on his life's most quixotic quest: a blockbuster cure for obesity.

Many before him have tried and failed. Medicines currently on the market haven't sold well. And investors are a little skeptical about Frost's latest wager.

"It's kind of like the unicorn of the pharma industry," said David Munno, head of drug research at Sphera Global Healthcare, a hedge fund in Tel Aviv.