Quote:
One pill attacks smoking, obesity
SOUNDS ALMOST TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE
By Marilynn Marchione
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS - An experimental pill that offers the fairy-tale promise of helping people lose weight and quit smoking has gathered even more stardust.
The biggest test yet of the drug found that it helped people not only drop pounds but also keep them off for two years -- longer than any other diet drug has been able to achieve. Cholesterol and other health measures improved, too.
The impressive results from a study of 3,040 obese people were presented at a medical conference Tuesday, capping months of anticipation about the new drug, Acomplia, made by the French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi-Aventis.
Doctors called the research exciting and the company, which funded the study, thinks the drug could have blockbuster potential similar to cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.
In a study of obese people throughout the United States and Canada, those given the higher of two doses of the drug lost more than 5 percent of their initial body weight, and a third of them lost more than 10 percent.
"They achieved and maintained a weight loss of 19 pounds as compared to 5.1 pounds in the placebo group,'' said Dr. F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer of Columbia University in New York, who led the research and presented results at the American Heart Association conference.
Those who quit taking the pill in the second year of the study regained most of what they had lost, suggesting that people might have to take the drug indefinitely to maintain a lower weight.
About two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, raising their risk of everything from cancer and cardiovascular disease to sore joints and snoring. About a fourth of U.S. adults smoke, which brings many of the same health woes.
It has been difficult to develop effective treatments for either problem. Diet drugs in particular have a checkered history, most notably the withdrawal from the market in 1997 of the popular "fen-phen'' drug combination after users developed heart valve problems.
Drugs now on the market either are designed for short-term use or have distasteful side effects like bowel problems that make many shy away from them.
Acomplia's maker thinks it will avoid those problems by attacking obesity in a novel way, and plans to seek federal approval for it next year.
It is the first diet drug aimed at blocking the "pleasure center'' of the brain and interfering with the cycle of craving and satisfaction that drives many compulsive behaviors and addictions. This same circuitry is activated when people smoke marijuana.
Wait and see...note that the article does say the drug would have to be taken indefinitely - kind of like a birth control pill. IF IT IS SAFE AND EFFECTIVE, shoot - I wouldn't mind taking a pill every day to help lose and maintain a healthy weight! Of course, that doesn't mean I wouldn't be watching my nutrition and exercise...One pill attacks smoking, obesity
SOUNDS ALMOST TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE
By Marilynn Marchione
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS - An experimental pill that offers the fairy-tale promise of helping people lose weight and quit smoking has gathered even more stardust.
The biggest test yet of the drug found that it helped people not only drop pounds but also keep them off for two years -- longer than any other diet drug has been able to achieve. Cholesterol and other health measures improved, too.
The impressive results from a study of 3,040 obese people were presented at a medical conference Tuesday, capping months of anticipation about the new drug, Acomplia, made by the French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi-Aventis.
Doctors called the research exciting and the company, which funded the study, thinks the drug could have blockbuster potential similar to cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.
In a study of obese people throughout the United States and Canada, those given the higher of two doses of the drug lost more than 5 percent of their initial body weight, and a third of them lost more than 10 percent.
"They achieved and maintained a weight loss of 19 pounds as compared to 5.1 pounds in the placebo group,'' said Dr. F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer of Columbia University in New York, who led the research and presented results at the American Heart Association conference.
Those who quit taking the pill in the second year of the study regained most of what they had lost, suggesting that people might have to take the drug indefinitely to maintain a lower weight.
About two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, raising their risk of everything from cancer and cardiovascular disease to sore joints and snoring. About a fourth of U.S. adults smoke, which brings many of the same health woes.
It has been difficult to develop effective treatments for either problem. Diet drugs in particular have a checkered history, most notably the withdrawal from the market in 1997 of the popular "fen-phen'' drug combination after users developed heart valve problems.
Drugs now on the market either are designed for short-term use or have distasteful side effects like bowel problems that make many shy away from them.
Acomplia's maker thinks it will avoid those problems by attacking obesity in a novel way, and plans to seek federal approval for it next year.
It is the first diet drug aimed at blocking the "pleasure center'' of the brain and interfering with the cycle of craving and satisfaction that drives many compulsive behaviors and addictions. This same circuitry is activated when people smoke marijuana.