Acomplia diet drug

no doubt you’ve heard the buzz: There’s a drug on the horizon that melts pounds by blocking cravings. The medication, to be called Diet pill Acomplia, will soon be submitted for FDA approval. Here’s the skinny. What makes Acomplia diet pill different from other diet drugs? It works specifically on cravings by shutting off certain receptors in the brain. “pill Acomplia diet decreases the urge to overeat, so you lose weight,” explains Richard L. Atkinson, M.D., president of the American Obesity Association and one of the researchers who has studied the drug. Is it really the …

Vivian Cota leaned on her shopping cart in the diet aisle of a San Jose Walgreens, eyeing the thick, locked plastic case labeled “Alli.”She has tried numerous other boxes on this shelf — the green tea supplements, the 10-day Hoodia diet. And now it’s time for something new.”I’m very interested in this,” said the 65-year-old San Jose woman, unhappy that the drug couldn’t be purchased until Friday. “You reach a plateau, and then you have to try something else.”As Alli, the first FDA-approved diet drug cleared for over-the- counter sale, arrived Friday in drugstores nationwide, doctors and nutritionists were trying to counter that intense consumer interest and a marketing juggernaut with some spin of their own, arguing that the drug’s high cost and limited effectiveness may not be worth its notably unpleasant side effects.

Alli (pronounced “ally”), sold by GlaxoSmithKline, is a half- dose of the prescription drug orlistat. The drug has been marketed in prescription form by Roche Holding AG under the brand name Xenical since 1999, but it never turned out to be a blockbuster.GlaxoSmithKline, however, expects Alli ultimately to rake in at least $1.5billion in annual sales, and the company is expected to spend $150million on marketing the drug in its first year. Television and magazine ads are running. E-tailers Amazon.com and Drugstore.com report that the drug, which has been pre-sold, already is a top seller — even at a cost of $50 to $60 for a month’s supply.

It sounds too good to be true:A pill that helps you lose weight, quit smoking, and reduce the cardiovascular risks for diabetes and heart disease.Sanofi-Aventis SA’s new treatment, Acomplia, also known as rimonabant, has shown promise in a half-dozen clinical trials in curbing the cravings that make people hungry and reach for a cigarette.The experimental drug, which works differently from other weight-loss medicines, could be approved by the Food and Drug Administration as soon as this month. And industry analysts predict it could become the world’s first blockbuster antiobesity treatment, with annual sales of 2 billion to 4 billion euros, or $2.4 billion to $4.8 billion.