CHICAGO - A new study conducted by the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York has found that an anti-obesity drug was able to produce substantial weight loss in people who consumed it for over two years.
The drug, Acomplia, chemical name rimonabant, is manufactured by Sanofi-Aventis SA and is currently pending approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But this report, which appears in the latest edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, could help expedite the process.
The study began in 2001 and involved around 3,000 people who took the drug for two years. Diet modification and exercise was also involved in the trial. The initial findings were summarized at the 2004 meeting of the American Heart Association.
In the final study, the drug was found to ”promote modest but sustained reductions in weight and waist circumference and favorable changes in cardiometabolic risk factors.” Diet and exercise was again an integral part of the regime. It was also found that 48 percent of the patients involved in the trial lost 5 percent weight in about 12 months after starting the drug.
Additionally it was found that the reduction of cholesterol and triglycerides “appeared to be approximately twice that expected from weight loss alone." This finding appears to link the drug directly to fat metabolism. The drug works by blocking the cannabinoid receptors in the brain, which are responsible for triggering hunger pangs after use of marijuana.
But in spite of the good results, the reserachers caution that more tests are needed, "It must be acknowledged that the trial was limited by a high dropout rate and that long-term effects of the drug require further study.
Still, our observations collectively suggest that rimonabant may well represent an innovative approach to the management of multiple cardiometabolic risk factors, facilitating and maintaining improvements through weight-loss dependent and independent pathways," they concluded.
