The researchers have developed a double diet pill which can help women to drop two dress sizes. The new pill made up of two existing drugs has double slimming power of orlistat, the popular obesity treatment often prescribed by GPs. The new pill called Onexa slashes blood pressure and diminishes levels of potentially hazardous blood fats and sugars.
Onexa is produced in combination of, the amphetamine-based slimming drug and topiramate, an epilepsy drug associated with weight loss. In a study nearly two thousand and five hundred overweight and obese US citizens were give Onexa once a day for one year and placebo pill. Those taking higher dose lost about one and half stone on an average making it equivalent to orlistat.
According to team led by Dr Kishore Gadde, from Duke University Medical Centre in North Carolina, the combination of phentermine and topiramate, with lifestyle intercessions, might be a precious treatment for obesity. But, there are worries about the safety of the drug, means Qnexa’s path to the market is improbable to be smooth.
Phentermine was withdrawn temporarily from sale in 2002 due to fears of heart damage and Topiramate has been linked to birth defects, memory problems and mood changes. Nearly twenty percent of study participants those taking high dose in current study experienced side effects counting dizziness, constipation and some had anxiety and depression.
Onexa was refused for sale by the US Food and Drug Administration by saying that more safety information linked to pill was required. The study for a safe and effective weight loss drug is ongoing, explained Dr Ian Campbell, a GP and medical director of charity Weight Concern.
There are large numbers of drugs at various stages in the pipeline but, till date, there is no one agent that produces significant weight loss over a prolonged period of time, added Dr Campbell.