March 8, 2005 (Orlando) - The experimental diet drug Acomplia helps keep off unwanted pounds for up to two years, new research shows.

After two years of treatment, patients in the study maintained a 16-pound weight loss. More than a third of patients taking the drug lost 10% of their body weight.

The drug targets a pleasure center in the brain that researchers believe is linked to overeating and other behaviors such as smoking. This new research is the fourth positive study of the drug, showing that Acomplia can take off pounds and help people stop smoking.Acomplia can take off pounds and help people stop smoking.

Luc Van Gaal, MD, studied more than 1,500 overweight adults in a two-year study. He reported the findings at the American College of Cardiology 2005 Scientific Session. The study was funded by Sanofi-Aventis, a Paris-based pharmaceutical company that has been developing the drug for clinical use.

In November 2004, Douglas Greene, MD, vice president of corporate medical and regulatory affairs for Sanofi-Aventis, told WebMD that the company planned to file for approval with the FDA in the second quarter of 2005.

“We can now say that we have robust data that can be replicated that shows [Acomplia] helps people lose weight and maintain that weight loss,shows [Acomplia] helps people lose weight and maintain that weight loss,” says Van Gaal, who is a professor of diabetology, metabolism, and clinical nutrition at the University of Antwerp in Belgium.

Participants in the study were randomly selected to take either low-dose Acomplia (5 mg), high-dose Acomplia (20 mg), or a placebo. Additionally, all patients were told to reduce their daily caloric intake by 600 calories. They were not given any specific dietary guidelines, nor were they given exercise recommendations.

After two years, the patients taking 20 mg lost an average of 16 pounds and kept the weight off. The patients taking lower dose Acomplia lost an average of 10 pounds. Patients taking a placebo lost an average of 5.5 pounds.

Perhaps even more encouraging, says Van Gaal, is that the patients taking Acomplia dropped inches from their waist, which is especially significant since expanding waistlines are associated with increased risk of heart disease and diabetes.expanding waistlines are associated with increased risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Van Gaal says that it looks like each 2.2 pounds of weight lost takes an inch off the waist. The average waist reduction was 3 inches for patients taking 20 mg and 1.3 inches for those on the lower dose.

After the first year of treatment, 39% of patients taking high-dose Acomplia were able to reach a goal of losing 10% of their weight. After two years, 32% of the high-dose patients maintained that level of weight loss.

This is very encouraging, says Van Gaal, because “people always say they want to lose 40 pounds, but you can achieve real health benefits by losing 10% of your body weight. This is a realistic and sustainable goal.” He says other studies have reported that patients who hit the 10% goal cut their risk of developing diabetes in half.

Julius Gardin, MD, chief of cardiology at St. John Hospital in Detroit, says, “The question is that we know that the battle against obesity is more than just a two-year fight. We would like to see if this weight reduction is maintained long term.” Gardin was not involved in the Acomplia study.

Advancement in technology came as a boon for the world. However, it took away from the people living here the quality of patience. The generation of today would prefer to do anything rather than wait patiently for results. An instance of this is noticeable in regards to losing weight. Dieting and exercising give results late. But the present generation is not ready to wait that long. Understanding the mood of people scientists have come up with a miraculous diet pill called acomplia. Acomplia increases the rate with which weight is lost in conjunction with diet and physical workout. - diet pill acomplia -Acomplia find is not alone in the weight loss drug market. Many other drugs like Adipex, Xenical, Meridia, Ionamin, etc. are readily available to people all over the world for treatment of obesity. But often these drugs have failed to deliver. The primary reason for the failure of these drugs is their ineffectiveness or side effects,diet pill acomplia. Once hyped weight loss drug Fen-phen was taken off the markets of the US for resulting in heart valve problems. A recent case has been of Meridia, which has been reported to have severe side effects.

Acomplia has drawn significant interest even before it received approval for sale. The reason for the interest is the pioneering technology that it makes use of to help lose weight. The target of find acomplia is the Cannabinoid type I or CB1 receptors present in ones brain and fat cells. These receptors signal to the brain that the stomach is empty. The researchers at Sanofi-Aventis, who developed the pill, break the signal system with the use of Acomplia find . Acomplia, which is the brand name of Rimonabant, blocks the CB1 receptors and thus reduces hunger pangs and cravings for nicotine- an amazing fact for the researchers itself,acomplia approval fda.

The effects of find acomplia diet pill can be ascertained up to now by the clinical trials that were conducted. The obese study participants reported losing 19 pounds in a period of two years by taking this drug. This implies that the patients lost around 1/5th of a pound every week. Effects of acomplia in reducing cravings for nicotine has not yet been proved and clinical trials are still going on. If this drug is proved to have positive effect on smoking cravings, it will become the most sought after drug. acomplia approval fda

Acomplia is currently available in very few countries including the UK. In UK, the drug got approval only in June of 2006. Sanofi plans to launch the drug in Denmark, Ireland, Germany, Finland and Norway during the second half of 2006,acomplia approval fda. FDA has still not cleared it for sale in the US. Similarly, in Canada the drug is awaiting approval.

Copies of diet drug (find Acomplia) (rimonabant) are being widely sold at Indian pharmacies without a prescription for as little as $3.60 for a month’s supply of the pill, according to reports from the Indian media.A half-dozen pharmaceutical companies — including such well-regarded generic drug manufacturers as Ranbaxy and Cipla — received approval from Indian regulatory authorities in May to sell their own versions of rimonabant.Sanofi-Aventis, developer of diet pill acomplia / Zimulti, also received approval in May to sell its own far-more-expensive diet drug in India, but thus far has not decided whether to put in on the market. Acomplia is sold in Europe for more than $100 per month, but has not been approved for sale in the United States.While sales of so-called “generic rimonabant” are entirely legal in India, where pharmaceutical manufacturers are allowed to produce reverse-engineered versions of drugs patented before 1995, sale of these Indian versions of rimonabant would not be legal in the U.S., Europe or Canada.

However, in the internet age, with Acomplia diet pill acomplia/ Zimulti unlikely to be approved for U.S. sale for at least another two years, pent-up demand for rimonabant by desperate obese and overweight Americans suggests a brisk international mail-order market is likely to develop for the generic products.Already, one off-shore pharmacy is advertising availability of generic rimonabant on one of our sister sites, RimonabantReport.com.