Acomplia Shot Down in EU
The European Medicines Agency has recommended that Acomplia, a dangerous diet drug with serious side effects, be pulled from the market.
Obese or overweight people using Acomplia have twice the risk of mental disorders than those taking a placebo, the London- based European Medicines Agency, which regulates treatments in the 27-nation European Union, said today in a statement.
This is characterized as a "death knell" for the drug in the EU. In the US, it's been shot down three times by the FDA so Sanofi-Aventis, the drug's maker, will try for a fourth time by promoting it as an anti-diabetes drug. Hey, that's great.
Also of note from this Bloomberg piece is that Alli, the heavily-marketed poop-your-pants diet drug, got the nod to be sold over the counter in the EU. Stock up on dark pants, friends.
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Posted by paul on October 23, 2008
Heh. I'd just headed over here to post this BBC article on the Forums, but it looks like it's already all over the fatosphere. With good news in such short supply these days, this is a very welcome development, albeit not entirely unexpected.
I'm more concerned that these professionals weren't taken more seriously at the time; it was widely known that the drug had been shown to raise the risk of mental health problems (who cares, you can't SEE depression after all!) during testing but nevertheless it was allowed to hit the shelves, and even gain approval from NICE, the NHS body responsible for rationing new treatments, at the expense of several proven remedies for other conditions.
Not that these safety concerns made British doctors think twice before prescribing it to more than 90,000 people in the four months it's been widely available. Despite the predictable whining of Dr Colin Waine (yep, it's the National Obesity Forum again), I just hope that the families of the five people who committed suicide whilst on Accompli launch a suit against Sanofi-Aventis and bury forever any plans to re-launch this vile pill as a diabetes treatment.
As if being fat (or diabetic for that matter) in this horrible world isn't depressing enough. A tiny victory for common sense was won today.
"if you think fat people have no self-discipline, consider the fact that they haven’t killed you yet." - Miss Conduct, Boston Globe
"NICE"
Eeeek! That has an Orwellian ring to it, considering NICE approved a deadly drug.