Respite from the diet roller coaster may come in the form of an experimental pill.
And because the pill also targets the brain's pleasure center - the first &to=http://english.pravda.ru/science/ 19/94/379/11479_cholesterol.html' target=_blank>diet pill to do so - it's showing some promise in helping smokers kick cigarettes.
The biggest test yet of the drug Acomplia found that it helped people lose pounds and keep them off for two years -- longer than any other diet drug has been able to achieve. &to=http://english.pravda.ru/fun/2002/05/28/29379.html' target=_blank>Cholesterol and other health measures improved, too. Acomplia is the brand name for the drug rimonabant, informs Detroit Free Press.
According to Seattle Times, the impressive results from a study of more than 3,000 &to=http://english.pravda.ru/fun/2002/05/11/28505.html' target=_blank>obese people were presented at a medical conference yesterday, 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 in 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.
Dr. Sidney Smith of the University of North Carolina said he would prefer that patients take weight-lowering drugs for short periods of time. "It is a bit like a jump start - they're off," Smith said.
Rimonabant, which will be marketed as Acomplia if it wins the blessing of the US Food and Drug Administration, is in a class of emerging drugs that aim to regulate biochemical processes that have been implicated in weight gain, as well as tobacco use, informs Boston Globe.
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