The biggest test yet of an experimental pill that promises to help people lose weight and stop smoking found that it helped people not only lose weight but also keep it off for two years -- longer than any other diet drug. Cholesterol and other health measures improved, too.
The impressive results from a study of more than 3,000 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 3,040 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 8.6kg as compared to 2.3kg 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 stopped 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 American adults are overweight or obese, raising their risk of everything from cancer and cardiovascular disease to sore joints and snoring. About a fourth of American adults smoke, which brings many of the same woes.
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 pot.
The study involved people who either were severely obese or were moderately obese and also had another heart-related health problem such as low "good" cholesterol, high blood pressure, or high blood sugar.
"What we have here now is essentially a brand new mechanism to treat an epidemic of staggering progression," said Douglas Greene, Sanofi's vice president.
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
PAPAL RETORT: Pope Leo told reporters that he has ‘no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel’ US President Donald Trump has feuded with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran conflict — setting off an unholy row that could have serious political implications for the Republican leader back in the US. Trump has drawn barbs even from some allies over the attacks on the US-born pontiff, who has criticized the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, the intervention in Venezuela and the Iran war. The president risks alienating the religious right in November’s crucial US midterm elections. So far the unprecedented clash between the leader of the most powerful military on Earth and the head of the world’s 1.4 billion
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship, the US Department of Justice said on Monday. Timothy Hudson was initially charged in February and subsequently indicted on March 10, but the breadth of the case was not known until a seal was lifted on Friday last week, weeks after US District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said that he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of the government. Anna Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November last
RSS