Weight loss, anti-smoking drug
Acomplia could be on the market by 2006
January 28, 2005
One-stop shopping fans take note: a new pill that claims
to help people stop smoking and lose
weight at the same time is in its final stages of
testing. It could be on the market by 2006. The new
drug is called Acomplia, and its being developed by
the French firm Sanofi-Synthelabo.
- A single pill has been found to stop both food and
cigarette cravings enough to help people quit smoking
and lose weight, and could also help curb other unhealthy
urges.
- Named Acomplia the drug in one study helped people
who were overweight drop an average of 20 pounds and
in another doubled the chances that smokers would
quit.
- Rimonabant (which will be brought to market as Acomplia)
works by blocking the CB1 receptor, one of two receptors
found in a newly described physiological system called
the Endocannabinoid System (EC System), believed to
play a critical role in the regulation of food intake
and energy expenditure.
- Researchers wondered whether a drug that halted
this action might curb appetite, and in 2001, the
first animal study was conducted at the National Institute
of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in Bethesda, Md.
- When the normal mice were given rimonabant, which
blocked their CB1 receptors, the mice reduced their
food intake.In 2002, Sanofi-Synthelabo began human
testing.
- Acomplia works by selectively targeting and blocking
the CB1 receptors, helping normalize the over-activation
of the EC system and making hunger or cigarette cravings
more manageable.
- This blocking of signals that control cravings appears
to result in weight loss, improvement of cardiovascular/
metabolic risk factors in overweight/obese patients
and appears to reduce tobacco dependence without post
cessation weight gain in people who smoke.
- Meridia (Reductil in Europe) was originally a drug
meant to treat depressions and can have severe side-effects
as well, like high blood pressure, sleeping problems
(Insomnia), constipation and dry-mouth syndrome.
- This causes a lot of strain on many of the body
systems and phentermine should therefore not be used
for longer periods and only in obesity cases and not
for treating common overweight.
Source:www.newstarget.com
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