FDA Panel Backs Weight Loss Drug, Despite Risks
By: Big 2 News Staff
Updated: February 23, 2012
A panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration
overwhelmingly backed approval for diet pill Qnexa on Wednesday,
two years after it rejected the drug because of potentially dangerous
side-effects.
Qnexa could become the first new prescription drug to treat
obesity in more than a decade.
Mariel Rosenwasser is like many of the 190 million obese and
overweight Americans struggling to lose weight.
"I had tried many different methods - Weight Watchers, Jenny
Craig," said Rosenwasser. "I tried working out, going to the
gym and anything I tried didn't seem to work."
But two years ago, when Rosenwasser was pushing 200 pounds, her
doctor put her on a combination of two diet drugs.
"Within the first year I lost over 50 pounds, which was
incredible," she said. "I think that the most important thing is
that I've actually been able to keep it off."
The combination that finally worked for her may soon be available
in a single pill known as Qnexa. It failed to win advisory
committee approval in 2010 because of two ingredients. Phentermine, an
ingredient, in the failed diet drug fen-phen was linked to heart
problems. The other, topiramate, was linked to birth defects.
Dr. Kenneth Burman is on the panel that recommended approval to
the FDA.
"The risks of the medication are real but the potential benefits
seem at this time to trump side effects but in truth only
time will tell," Burman said.
The benefits of Qnexa include up to 15 percent weight loss,
lowering the risk of problems like diabetes and high blood pressure.
