New anti-obesity pill promises double the weight loss

Denmark, October 23: In a bid to combat the growing obesity epidemic, researchers at the University of Copenhagen are testing an experimental drug, Tesofensine, that can roughly double the weight loss as compared to other anti-obesity treatments currently being marketed.

For the phase II trail of the drug, researchers enrolled 203 obese patients weighing an average 220 pounds.

While all participants were put on a low calorie diet along with a regular exercise regime of physical activity up to an hour a day, half were administered a once-daily 0.25 mg dose of tesofensine. Remaining were prescribed a 1 mg daily drug placebo.

Six months into the study, an average weight loss ranging from 5 pounds in the placebo group to 28 pounds among patients taking the tesofensine was reported.

"We were quite astonished when we saw the results. It is extremely promising," Professor Arne Astrup, President of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, said.

"Tesonfensine had the potential to produce twice the weight loss as currently approved drugs," she added.

Explaining the working of the drug, Astrup said, “the once-a-day diet pill focuses on the part of the brain that controls appetite (the neurotransmitters noradrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin) controlling the urge to snack and making people feel full more quickly.”

However, patients on the highest dose of the experimental drug showed significant increase in blood pressure levels. Also, the parts of the brain not involved in the weight control signals are also likely to bear the brunt.

The drug will now enter the Phase III trails where the participants will be treated with the 0.5 milligram dose. If successful, drug manufacturer, Neurosearch A/S, a Danish biopharmaceutical major, will launch the drug in market within four years.

Despite well documented facts warning against the potentially deadly facet of obesity, both adult and childhood obesity figures are soaring at a sky-rocketing pace, with a prediction to increase manifold in the coming years.

Sedentary lifestyle, genetics and medical and psychiatric illness play a significant role in fueling obesity that leads to onset of life-threatening conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, sleep problems and cancerdefine.

Body Mass Indexdefine is the most appropriate method of calculating obesity. It is the individual's body weight divided by the square of his height. While a BMI score of between 18 and 25 is considered normal, a score of more than 25 is overweight and one of more than 30 is clinically obese.