US company develops better weight reduction pill
Dec 28, 2006 - 1:48:37 PM
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The pill contains two drugs, which are already widely used, against epilepsy and smoking, so there is a reduced danger of side effects emerging in trials. The pills also boost levels of a hormone that stops us getting hungry, they said.
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By IANS,
[RxPG] New York, Dec 28 - A US company claimed to have developed a weight reduction pill which works better and faster than existing drugs and also could cut the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
Existing anti-obesity pills generally cut weight by five to 10 percent when taken for a year.
But men and women taking Excalia, the new pill developed by Californian biopharmaceutical firm Orexigen for 48 weeks lost 12 percent of their body weight, according to the online edition of Daily Mail.
A course of one a day of Excalia could have a dramatic effect on the quality of life and cut the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer, it said.
Many slimmers find that, after weeks of successfully losing weight, their metabolism slows down and they hit a plateau, the US scientists developing the pills say.
With the pounds slower to come off, many lose their resolve and end up piling weight back on.
Excalia gets round this by tricking the hypothalamus - the brain's weight and appetite thermostat - into keeping the metabolism running fast.
The pill contains two drugs, which are already widely used, against epilepsy and smoking, so there is a reduced danger of side effects emerging in trials. The pills also boost levels of a hormone that stops us getting hungry, they said.
Ken Fujioka, one of the doctors running the trials, said: 'The brain is good at figuring out that the body is losing weight. If a drug affects one pathway that could be used to bring the weight back, it will switch to another pathway. With a combination of drugs, we have a better chance of hitting two pathways and getting better and more sustained weight loss.'
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