Give up smoking, drinking and slim down with magic pill

A PILL could help people lose weight and stop smoking at the same time.

The drug has been shown to cut body weight up to 10 per cent, double the success rate of smokers trying to quit, and reduce cravings for alcohol. Crucially, most participants in a trial of the drug Accomplia lost weight from around their waist and abdomen — the area of fat considered a high-risk indicator of heart attack. French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Synthelabo this week reported the outcomes of a trial of 3000 patients in the US. Accomplia, which is taken once a day, could also help prevent heart disease, diabetes, strokes and other major health problems. The trial found more than one in three people receiving the drug lost 10 per cent of their body weight after two years. The rest lost 5 per cent — double the amount lost by those taking a placebo. Their levels of good cholesterol increased 24 per cent and the level of harmful blood fats dropped 10 per cent. People taking the highest dose pill, 20mg, reduced their waist size almost 8.5cm. About one in eight people reported mild side effects including nausea and occasional dizziness. The drug could be available in Britain within 18 months. Maker Sanofi Synthelabo said they were likely to apply to the US Food and Drug Administration to market the drug in 2006. Professor Xavier Pi-Sunyer from Columbia University, New York, who led the research, said that the drug would revolutionise the fight against obesity. “It has become increasingly apparent that current approaches are insufficient,” he said. “Excess abdominal fat in particular is increasingly recognised as one of the most telling harbingers of future cardiovascular complications.” Accomplia works by inhibiting the CB1 receptor in the brain, which is associated with regulating food intake and tobacco dependency. Human tests on the drug began in 2002 after earlier studies in mice found those who lacked the CB1 cannaboid receptors ate less than their litter mates even after 18 hours of fasting. When normal mice were given rimonabant, the pharmaceutical name for Accomplia, they also ate less. (Source: The Herald Sun, Nov 2004)