Obesity Problems with Acomplia and Battle Chronic Weight

More and more people are turning to pharmaceutical solutions to help them battle chronic weight and obesity problems. While we would all like to be able to control our weight through diet and exercise, many in our society find that they just can’t do it without a helping hand. The pace of our lives means we have to grab whatever food is available to us when we have a free moment and to eat it as fast as we can. We don’t even take the time to stop and think about whether or not we are full. We just eat until it is gone.

We eat without conscience, and we are paying the price. Drug companies are beginning to move closer to an answer. A series of slimming pills have, and are being, developed which work to help your brain know when your body has had enough. These drugs work with the nervous system, turning on certain switches and blocking transmission to others. When the drugs block your body’s neuro- transmissions in the right sequence, they can control your appetite.

Though Acomplia has yet to gain approval from the FDA, it has already given birth to several competitors. Pharmaceutical giants Merck and Pfizer have both entered the marketplace with their own clinical trials of diet pills.

Acomplia, and the newcomers, are having a hard time finding FDA approval as a new kind of drug. They work by blocking receptors in the brain. Called a cannabinoid-1 (CB-1) receptor antagonist, the developers of these drugs are seeking ways to keep you from being hungry. Some block the body’s desire for fatty foods, while other’s block the body’s desire to overeat. In both cases, the drugs are working to combat one of the most destructive problems facing our society; people who use food as a drug.

When people talk about needing comfort food, it is a mental or emotional need that they are meeting. There is no thought to eating for nutritional value. People eat because of the way that it makes them feel. This is destructive behavior, and these weight loss pills work to beat back those cravings.

Merck is currently testing a drug called Taranabant. In extensive Phase II and Phase III clinical trials this drug has proven effective may have demonstrated fewer side effects than Acomplia. Likewise, Pfizer has been testing its own drug that blocks brain receptors. As yet un-named, this drug seems to be following closely in Taranabant’s footsteps of success.

As both drugs near the end of their trials and go before the Food and Drug Administration for approval, their developers are closely watching what is happening with Acomplia’s efforts to get FDA approval. Acomplia, made from the base drug rimonabant, is supposed to be marketed in the US under the name Zimulti. Both Merck and Pfizer are curious to see how well it fares in the eyes of FDA regulators. If Zimulti doesn’t pass, then the two giants may have the market cornered with their own products which might display fewer side effects.

Merck has not yet reported on Phase III of its trial, but interviews with participants leads analysts to believe the drug is being well received. This dramatic reduction in side effects from Acomplia/Zimulti could catapult Taranabant through the FDA process and make it the new household name in weight loss drugs. If this were to happen, it is likely that Pfizer’s product, which seems to be a little bit behind Merck’s in development, will be playing catch up. Initial reports say that both drugs could go before the FDA as soon as next year.

This all spells bad news for the makers of Acomplia/Zimulti. In their most recent attempt at approval, the FDA denied the sale of the drug within the United States citing the need for additional testing and a better understanding of long term side effects. This denial has left some saying that Acomplia won’t be passed by the FDA until at least 2010. If Merck and Pfizer are able to get their own products passed before then, then they will undoubtedly have earned the dominant market share by that time.

The very thing that makes Acomplia work, its ability to alter the operation of neuro- sensors, is what makes it so dangerous. Stories of suicidally severe depression are rampant on the internet and from consumer watchdog groups. Whether or not Acomplia helps people to lose weight is not in question. The questions all circle around how healthy it is for you overall, and the question of mental health is as important in this discussion as is physical. Until these questions are addressed, the future isn’t shining very brightly for Acomplia in the United States.

Can Alli be what it claims for Weight Loss?

With its claim to be the only FDA approved over the counter weight loss drug, Alli is marketing itself to those who want to work to lose weight, but could use a boost. Perhaps the most refreshing thing about this drug, and its ensuing PR, is that it doesn’t claim to help you lose 500% more weight while sitting on your couch and eating ice cream. Finally, a diet aid that admits that you have to put some effort into the weight loss battle!

From a technical standpoint, Alli is a low dose version of the prescription diet drug Xenical. The low dose version doesn’t pack enough of a wallop to generate any dramatic side effects, aside from one which can be a little embarrassing, thus the reason it is able to be sold over the counter. This may be the perfect solution for many who struggle with their weight, but aren’t ready to buy into the risks associated with many of the more popular prescription weight loss drugs.

That one embarrassing side effect doesn’t seem to be enough to keep new buyers from trying it out though. The side effect is a direct result of how the pill works. The effective ingredients in Alli block about 25% of the fat that you intake from being digested. That 25% then, has to be expelled from the body, making for some interesting trips to the bathroom during the first few days that you are on it. Despite the clear warnings from pharmacists and drug store employees, the drug is selling at a higher rate than expected. As an additional note on the side effect, it can actually help users to stick to the diets that they are trying to supplement. If you eat more than the recommended amount of fat in your diet, it will make that rather precarious side effect even worse. Think of it as a good way to help keep you honest.

Unlike many of the new diet drugs, which seek to block receptors in the brain that make you think you are hungry, Alli doesn’t have any effect on the nervous system. It simply reduces the amount of fat that your body is able to digest, and concurrently absorb. Many users find this to be a much safer alternative. With so many reports floating around the internet about diet pill induced psychosis, consumers have every right to be a little bit nervous.

Initial reactions from the buying public seem to be positive, even though it is still too early to say whether or not Alli will have staying power. At this point, sales are still being driven by the excitement of a new product that claims to address a problem that so many people have. Still, dieters should be encouraged by Alli’s claim to not be a miracle drug, but instead a helping hand, there to give a little boost to those who are ready to drop a few extra pounds.

Perhaps nothing has done more damage to the American perception of weight loss than the years of television commercials touting diet pills that work so you don’t have to. Somewhere along the way it has become burned into our brains that our problems are not our responsibility, but that we can simply take a little pill and it will all go away. Many people have gotten very wealthy by taking advantage of this lie. Alli, however, seems to circumvent this notion, and addresses from the very beginning in its advertising that it just doesn’t work that way. Maybe they really believe it or maybe it’s just genius marketing, but it seems like they are realizing that people who struggle with weight and obesity are tired of being lied to.

Whatever the motivation, the ad campaign is working. When the product was introduced into Southern California stores over the summer, it sold out almost immediately. People believed.

There are of course, those in the medical community who naysay any product that attempts to disrupt the body’s natural processes. Exercising control over what you eat though, is necessary with Alli, so it seems that serial dieters can’t rely solely on the drug to do all of the work for them. While the side effects, when the drug is taken as recommended, can be a bit of a nuisance, they aren’t inherently dangerous, and the long term effects of them are nil. That alone seems to be reason enough for many curious dieters to take the plunge and see what Alli can do for them.