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Interest Builds in New Weight Loss Drug, Acomplia

May 6, 2005
A report in The Lancet is stirring heightened interest in the new weight-loss drug Acomplia (rimonabant), expected to be available in the U.S. next year. The report was based on one-year results from the RIO-Europe clinical trial, which showed that Acomplia could substantially reduce the weight, waist circumference and risk factors for heart disease in obese people.

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Acomplia has been hailed by some doctors on the basis of interim study results as potentially a major breakthrough in treating obesity, according to the Acomplia Report, a Web newsletter.

Other once-promising anti-obesity drugs like Xenical, Meridia (Reductil in Europe), and phentermine, however, have proven to have troublesome side effects, disappointing millions of dieters, the report noted.

Another diet drug under development, Axokine, also has been reported to have a high rate of side effects in clinical trials.

In the Lancet article, Dr. Luc Van Gaal of University Hospital in Antwerp, Belgium, the lead researcher in the RIO-Europe trial, said treatment with the drug over one year led to "sustained, clinically meaningful weight loss, reduction in waist circumference, and associated improvements in several cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors."

In an accompanying editorial, Drs. Uberto Pagotto and Renato Pasquali of Sant Orsola-Malpighi General Hospital, Bologna, Italy, support the assertion, writing: "A new pharmacological treatment to tackle obesity, and alterations of metabolic and lipid profiles that are often associated, could now be close to clinical practice."

"These data, and those from the other ongoing clinical trials with rimonabant, might presumably help us to better tackle obesity and related metabolic and cardiovascular disease."

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