Lede: Its diet pill was a commercial flop that almost sent Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. to the grave. But now, following a major makeover, the company’s new experimental medicines could bring renewed life to the San Diego biotech.

One medicine in particular has biotech investors buzzing, a drug that proved more effective in mid-stage human trials than anyone was expecting (more on that later). Over the past three months, the company’s stock price, once in the gutter, has skyrocketed 80 percent. Arena is back from the dead.

READ THE FULL STORY AT SAN DIEGO BUSINESS JOURNAL.