A NEW drug is being touted as a potential cure for the developed world’s obesity epidemic.

Two thirds of people who took Rimonabant for a year, while following a calorie-controlled diet, lost 5 per cent of their bodyweight. Almost 40 per cent lost 10 per cent.

These results could give Rimonabant a big slice of a market which the drug companies believe will be worth billions of dollars a year — once it secures a license.

There are two obesity drugs already on the market, Orlistat and Sibutramine, which typically achieve weight losses of 3 per cent to 4 per cent in studies lasting a year or more.

The new trial, carried out using more than 1,500 people who were overweight or obese, achieved actual weight losses averaging 6.6 kg (14.5 lbs), compared with 1.8 kg (4 lbs) for those taking a placebo. Both groups were on diets that aimed to provide them with 600 calories a day less than the minimum required to maintain bodyweight.

Rimonabant, which is being developed by Sanofi-Aventis, works by blocking a receptor that is part of the endocannabinoid system. The receptor, which is found in the brain, in fat cells and in other parts of the body, helps to regulate food intake, which is why blocking it makes it easier for overweight people to lose weight.

A team based at the University Hospital in Antwerp treated people with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 30 — classifying them as obese — and those with BMIs greater than 27, who also had high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or both.

Two doses were tried, 5mg and 20mg, in the form of a once-a-day pill. A control group was given a placebo and all participants were put on a calorie-limited diet.

The results are encouraging, since losing this much weight would be deemed a success in any dieting regime. But the trial did not follow the participants for long enough to see if the weight loss was maintained.

The team concludes in the online version of The Lancet: “Treatment with Rimonabant was associated with clinically meaningful weight loss and additional improvements in waist circumference, lipid concentrations, and insulin resistance, and had a favourable safety profile.”

David Haslam, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, said: “It’s not a miracle drug, and has to be used alongside improvements in diet and physical activity, but it’s another tool in the kit that will help us save lives.” The drug did not appear to produce any serious side effects, although patients on the higher dose experienced some mild symptoms such as depression, nausea, and headaches.

An interesting finding was the improvement in waist circumference, Abdominal fat is regarded as especially damaging as it produces produces potentially harmful signalling molecules called cytokines.

When these enter the blood they help to trigger the dangerous inflammation associated with narrowing of the arteries.

FOOL THE BODY OR THE MIND

• More than half of adults are overweight. Losing 5 to 10 per cent of body weight cuts health risks significantly
  
  
• Orlistat, marketed by Roche as Xenical, disrupts fat digestion so that it is excreted before it can cause weight gain
  
  
• Sibutramine, marketed by Abbott as Reductil, works on the brain. It increases the levels of noradrenaline and serotonin, promoting the feeling of being full
  
  
• In a review in International Journal of Obesity of 11 studies of orlistat and three of sibutramine, orlistat produced a loss of 2.9 per cent of body weight when taken for a year and sibutramine 4.6 per cent over the same period
  
  Would you take a pill to lose weight?

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