Monday, October 11, 2010

Weight loss drug pulled from Canadian shelves

From the Montreal Gazette:
The prescription diet pill market in Canada just got slimmer.

The manufacturer of the weight-loss drug Meridia announced yesterday it is voluntarily pulling its product off the Canadian market, the same day the company withdrew its diet pill in the U.S. at the request of American drug regulators over an increased risk of heart attack and stroke in some people.

The move leaves Canadians looking for prescription weight loss drugs with just one possible option -orlistat, sold under the brand name Xenical, which prevents dietary fat from being absorbed by the intestines.

Meridia's removal comes seven years after Health Canada concluded in 2003, after a yearlong safety review, that the drug's benefits outweighed the risks.

The drug (sibutramine), which works on the brain to make people feel fuller, has already been pulled from markets in Europe and has faced questions in the U.S. since the consumer group Public Citizen petitioned the FDA unsuccessfully to have the drug banned in 2002. The group charged health regulators knew of the potential for heart problems before Meridia was introduced to the U.S. market in 1998. ...more

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