Diet Drug Wins Panel's Approval

Kara

Posting: #4

Topic: Health

Title of Article: Diet Drug Wins Panel's Approval

Author: Andrew Pollack

Publication Name: New York Times

Date of Publication: May 10, 2012

Length of Article: 706 words

Arena Pharmaceuticals has developed a weight-loss drug that has recently been recommended for approval by government advisers. The majority of the FDA voted for the drug, lorcaserin, because the benefits outweigh the risks. Lorcaserin, if approved on June 27, would be the first prescription diet pill to be released since 1999. This pill would allow people to have a chance at battling obesity. However, this treatment was not approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2010. Lorcaserin was rejected because in some cases it caused tumors in rats and damaged heart valves. Arena explained that lorcaserin binds to the receptor on the cell surface to appease hunger, and at the same time has a weak bond to another receptor associated with valve damage. Also in 2010, lorcaserin only had a 3.3% benefit compared to the placebo, which was still under the FDA's standard for approval of 5%. However since then, Arena Pharmaceuticals has provided more data to support its medical developments and has a high chance of being approved this year. Also, since the number of obese people keeps rising, the FDA is looking to treat obesity, therefore these drugs are more appealing than they were two years ago. Roughly one-third of the adult population in the United States are obese and this high obesity will lead to heart complications, diabetes, and other diseases later in life. 

Although it may seem as if this is the solution to obesity, it is merely a "steppingstone to help us out" according to Dr. Eric I. Felner, pediatric endocrinologist who favored the drug. Also, the committee believes that the risks aren't that big, but neither are the benefits of lorcaserin. People are losing weight, which can be seen by some statistical evidence, but not enough to reach the FDA standards. For example, the risks of valve damage is minimal, but still too high for the FDA to accept and approve to be sold in public. Also, people treated with lorcaserin lost on average 5.8%, while the people treated with placebo lost 2.5%, which is only a 3.3% difference as mentioned above. This difference is still below the FDA standard for approval by 1.7%. All in all, this drug does not seem to have as many benefits as the FDA desires, but in times of need, the FDA may approve this drug to reduce the risks and cases of obesity.