Further to the announcement on our health blog on Friday that Acomplia was being withdrawn from sale in Europe, we thought that it would be appropriate to give readers a bit more information behind this development.
When it was launched in 2006 Acomplia was hailed as a wonder drug. The clinical trials had shown that forty per cent of those who were given the drug lost up to ten per cent of their total body weight. Now just two years later, the European Medicines Agency has suspended Acomplia’s licence after linking the drug to depression, psychosis and suicidal tendencies. The EMA said in a statement that they did not believe that the positive attributes of the drug outweighed by the potential side effects.
Around 2500 adverse reactions to the drug have been reported in the UK since Acomplia became available for private prescription two years ago. Perhaps surprisingly, Acomplia was cleared by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) to be prescribed on the NHS only four months ago, though it was only to be made available for patients who were regarded as having tried every other available method of losing weight.
The possible side effects of the drug were well known and there were clear warnings on the packets that detailed the risk of depression, anxiety and other serious psychiatric side effects from taking the medication.
The EMA said that Acomplia had proved less effective in ‘real life’ than in its clinical trials. The fact that one in ten users of the drug were reporting mental health side effects led them to conclude that Acomplia was not a viable weight loss medication. This is obviously a big blow for people who are taking Acomplia and who are losing weight without any adverse side effects.
As one door closes, however, another one opens and it was announced this week that another weight loss drug called tesofensine was in advanced clinical trials and was ‘twice as effective’ as anything currently available. Only time will tell.....