New Slimming Pill in the Pipeline
Posted: Wednesday, 7 October, 2009 | Categories: diet pill, slimming pill, Qnexa
Pharmaceutical experts and doctors are getting excited about promising new results released by the pharmaceutical firm Vivus into clinical trials of their new diet pill Qnexa.
The trials have indicated that the pill could be more effective than any pill currently on the market, with patients taking the high dose losing almost 15% of their body weight and those on the lower dose losing 8% of their body weight. The users of the diet pill also saw their blood pressure drop, the health of their heart improve and their chances of developing type 2 diabetes fall.
The pill combines two medications that have already been separately trialled. The first, phentermine, was a popular weight loss drug until 10 years ago when it fell out of favour with doctors due to safety concerns. The other is an epilepsy medication called Topiramate which has been shown to promote weight loss.
3,750 obese people took part in the trials and over the 53-week trial period the average amount lost was 14.7% of each patient’s body fat. The results have been described by the lead scientist on the trial, Dr Louis Aronne of the New York Presbytarian Hospital, as “spectacular.”
He went on to say that the results were as good as those experienced by patients who have had gastric bands fitted . He then added that those battling the obesity crisis were “in desperate need of more options and effective drugs to treat obesity and the results of this trial were extremely encouraging.”