Total Pageviews

Saturday 24 September 2011

The most popular weight-loss drug in Britain is under investigation over fears it may be linked to liver failure.

Official figures show that orlistat accounted for 74 per cent of the 1.45million weight-loss drugs prescribed in England in 2009, which cost £46.8m.

Two other anti-obesity pills, known as rimonabant (Acomplia) and sibutramine (Reductil), worked by altering how patients think about food but have been suspended from sale in recent years, leaving Xenical the main option for GPs to prescribe.

It said the “vast majority” of reports of liver damage were not serious, and severe injuries have only been reported “very rarely”.

Between August 2009 and January this year, the EMA said it had heard of 21 suspected cases of liver damage linked to the prescription-only dose of orlistat.

Four of these were severe, with one proving fatal and another requiring a liver transplant.
Between 1997 and 2011 there were 21 cases where a link could have been present, out of 38m people taking the drug.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/pharmaceuticalsandchemicals/8782796/Popular-weight-loss-drug-under-review-over-liver-failure-fears.html

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Why take the risk with orlistat when you can get similar results with LowCarb.


"In conclusion, the LCKD and the O + LFD were equally effective for weight loss and several cardiovascular disease risk factors, although the low-carbohydrate diet was more effective for lowering blood pressure."

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/170/2/136