This isn't a big surprise to any of us, but the part that grabbed my attention is this:
San Diego-based Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. has an obesity product, Lorcaserin, already in late-stage trials. In March, the company is expected to report critical safety results. The drug, which hasn't shown safety issues so far, has been under intense scrutiny by analysts who are concerned about its marketing viability, since Lorcaserin is said to work similarly to now discontinued Fen-Phen, which caused heart problems.
I don't know if fen-phen showed the pulmonary hypertension side effect in clinical trials, but if it did, that sure as hell didn't stop them from marketing it or stop doctors from prescribing it (been there done that).
The other part that grabbed my attention is this:
Meanwhile, Amylin has seen success with its diabetes drug Byetta, after patients reported weight loss as a welcomed side effect, prompting doctors to prescribe it off-label to overweight patients.
This particular drug has as one of its side effects, pancreatitis in some susceptible people (including diabetics). It is also fairly new, so I'm betting that they don't know all of the effects for diabetics, let alone prescribing it for non-diabetics as a weight-loss drug, which was not its intended purpose.
I find this kind of thing very disturbing, as if being fat is such a bad thing (if you're fat, you have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel) that it doesn't matter what side effects you have to suffer from drugs/WLS, it's all worth it just to not be fat anymore.
I have a suggestion for them. If you want to cut the rates of obesity, try going back to the BMI charts of 10 years ago (how many "overweight/obese" people would then be "normal" again...hmmmmmm?). Oh right, then there wouldn't be any obesity epidemic and diet companies/pharmaceutical companies wouldn't be able to take billions of dollars from unsuspecting consumers. Gee, that just breaks my heart (NOT).
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