Weight Loss Pills Await FDA Approval

Weight loss pills are awaiting final approval from the FDA.  Lorcaserin and Contrave have shown to curb patient’s eating and have led to double-digit weight loss in early clinical trials.

The Food and Drug Administration will soon examine two new weight loss pills for final approval.

Lorcaserin, from Arena Pharmaceuticals, and Contrave, from Orexigen Therapeutics are both designed to help people lose weight by curbing hunger.

Early clinical trials have shown that Contrave helped patients curb their eating and experience double-digit weight loss – dropping upwards of 10 percent of their body weight. That’s an increase over the 5 percent body weight reduction most weight loss pill patients experience.

Similarly, participants in a clinical trial for Lorcaserin shed 5.8 percent of their body weight, on average, compared to 2.2 percent for those taking a placebo.

However, the new weight loss drugs are causing some moderate side effects among trial patients, such as headaches and nausea. But so far none of the side effects have threatened FDA approval of the drugs.