Anti-obesity pill promising: second study (AFP)

ORLANDO, Florida (AFP) - A European study appears to confirm earlier results of tests on an experimental pill against obesity from French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventi, researchers said.

Sanofi-Aventi hopes to sell Rimonabant in the United States where nearly two thirds of the population is overweight or obese.

Use of the drug saw average weight loss of 7.2 kilos after nearly two years' treatment, compared with 2.5 kilos in a placebo group, said diabetologist Luc Van Gaal.

Presenting conclusions from the study he led at the American College of Cardiology's annual meeting, Van Gaal said: "The majority of the weight that was lost at one year is still maintained after two years" with "only a slight increase" during the second year.

Van Gaal, the department head and professor of medicine in the department of Diabetology, Metabolism and Clinical Nutrition at the University Hospital in Antwerp, Belgium led the study in Europe of 1,507 significantly obese people.

The girth size in people in the study group shrank an average 8.5 centimeters after one year. On average, one year later, they had gained one centimeter on the waist.

By comparison, people in the placebo group lost 3.5 centimeters. Every kilo lost takes the waist size down by one centimeter, Van Gaal added.

A first study of 3,040 obese people was done in the United States and Canada, the results announced in November 2004 revealing that those who took the highest dose -- 20 mg a day -- lost 8.5 kilos average and kept off the weight for two years.

Rimonabant, whose commercial name is Acomplia, works differently from other treatments assessed in short term studies. The molecule neutralizes the point in the brain that feels pleasure at eating, and also diminishes the desire to eat.

At the same time it acts on fat cells to block weight gain.

The drug has its side effects, however. More than 13 percent taking the maximum dose complained of episodes of slight nausea against five percent who took the placebo. Cases of diarrhea and vertigo were also twice as frequent.

Twenty percent of the group being treated also dropped out of the study, compared with 13 percent in the placebo group.

Sanofi-Aventi, the world's third largest pharmaceutical company, says that Acomplia could potentially be a "blockbuster," with the ability to generate more than a billion dollars a year in sales.

The US market for the company is enormous, compared with Europe where only one third of the population is obese or overweight.

Sanofi-Aventi will seek a green light from the US Federal Drug Administration to market the drug in the coming months.