ABC: "Weight Loss Drugs: Public Citizen Calls for Ban on Alli, Xenical"

[Skidmore]

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/w_DietAndFitness/weight-loss-drugs-consumer-watchdog-calls-ban-alli/story?id=13376523

Drugs Have Side Effects and Limited Benefit; GlaxoSmithKline Trying to Sell Brands

By LARA SALAHI
April 14, 2011

The weight loss drugs Alli and Xenical should be removed from the market because of the growing risk of side effects that include liver damage, pancreatitis and kidney stones, according to the consumer watchdog Public Citizen.

In a new attempt to eliminate the only FDA-approved class of weight-loss drugs, Public Citizen issued a petition to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Thursday -- its second in five years -- calling for the agency to ban the class of drugs called orlistat, better known by the prescription brand names Xenical and Alli.


...

It's unclear whether the FDA will accept Public Citizen's new petition. And in the end, some experts say that the market, rather than the FDA, may end up deciding the fate of the weight-loss drugs.

"It seems like Alli is going to wither away on its own anyway. Its market has already decreased considerably," said Keith Ayoob, a registered dietician and director of the nutrition clinic at the Rose R. Kennedy Center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. "It wouldn't surprise me if the FDA allowed it to continue with restriction without pulling it."

Now why are we going to depend on "market forces" to get this medication off of the shelves when apparently the FDA will not? And why should pharmaceutical company be selling the brand of something which has so many risks associated with it?

[ET Awful]

1. Personally, I wish any over-the-counter drug which includes side-effects like

"anal leakage" never would have been brought to market anyway.

And yes, that's a listed side effect by the manufacturer for Alli.

[IndyPragmatist]

2. Sounds like a pretty risky drug...

But why the hell would anyone buy something with those side effects? I agree that the FDA should do something, but what the hell is wrong with people that they would risk their health to potentially lose a few pounds?

[eilen]

3. Considering that obesity is the last acceptable social prejudice

next to cigarette smoking... I'm not surprised.

If you are 40+ lbs overweight there are high social and career consequences.

[ThatPoetGuy]

4. I used Alli, but my circumstances were out of the ordinary.

I've been athletic my whole life, but a botched surgery left me essentially crippled for two years. When I was well enough to begin exercising again, I'd lost so much strength and gained so much weight that exercise was very difficult.

I chose to use Alli. The reason Alli has limited benefits is that it _only works if you're increasing your level of exercise_. If you work out twenty minutes a day, start taking Alli, and continue your daily exercise, it won't do anything. Also, if you're working out twenty minutes a day, start taking Alli, and up your exercise to 30 minutes a day, it'll help a good deal -- but if you ever go back to 20 minutes a day, you'll lose its benefits. So it's a rare case when it's actually useful.

For me, I knew that once I was a little stronger and a little lighter, I'd be working out forty to ninety minutes a day, and I was starting out from zero minutes of exercise a day. For someone in that (rare) circumstance, Alli will cause you to lose 50% more fat in the same period. And that was exactly what I needed: to get my health back, I needed to lose enough fat and gain enough strength that I'd be able to move around easily, and then the rest would fall into place with my lifelong regimen of healthy eating and exercise. My doctors said it would take me six months to a year. It took me sixty days, and I never took another Alli.

For athletes recovering from incapacitation, I recommend a short-term Alli regimen. For everyone else, I don't see any purpose.

[SoCalDem]

5. Geez Louise.. every month or so they withdraw some drug..

weight loss drugs will probably never "work", since it's the maintenance that gets people in the end..

Until we tackle it from where it probably originates, not much will ever change..

Foods are no longer really "just food".. they are jam-packed with "enhanced" flavoring ..artificial usually, salt, sugars, HFCS, preservatives, etc..

People have forgotten what real food tastes like, and our still-primitive brain knows what it needs, so we eat frankenfoods , the brain says "that ain't food..eat some more, we're still hungry"

and of course restaurants serve plates of food that would feed 3 people, but they feel compelled to give huge servings to justify the prices they have to charge..

a pill won;t do it for most people, and can damage them for life from side effects..or maybe kill them..