Obesity pill helps dieters

by Jo Ford

Wonder pill Acomplia is set help millions of people who are medically classed as obese. The new drug is claimed to reduce body weight by up to 10% per year and reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes. The pill will be available on prescription to British patients through the NHS, with Europe and the United States to follow. According to manufacturers Sanofi-Aventis, the pill works by interfering with the body’s system that is responsible for controlling energy levels.

British patients will be the first in the world to benefit from it following its UK launch. Experts say the £2-a-day pill will be a valuable tool to help tackle soaring rates of obesity by reducing people's desire to overeat and targeting dangerous abdominal fat. But there will be concerns about the 'medicalisation' of obesity and whether patients will consider the drug an easy way to slim. There are also fears that some people who are underweight or anorexic may try to obtain it illegally on the black-market without prescription. Acomplia, also known as rimonabant, is licensed for people who are medically classed as obese - around 10million people in the UK.

In trials when overweight people took a daily 20 mg pill, up to 40 per cent of them lost 10 per cent of their body weight, much of it from around their waist. The drug also boosted levels of protective good cholesterol, while lowering harmful blood fats, and helped diabetics improve control of their blood sugar levels.