The drugmaker, which sells the Alli over-the-counter fat pill, has filed a citizen’s petition in hopes of convincing the FDA to change the rules governing health claims made by dietary supplement manufacturers. The gambit turns on the notion that weight-loss supplements should be vetted for claims that address a disease - and in this case, [...]

That’s the implication from the latest news to dribble out of Wall Street. An analyst indicated that Merck’s experimental taranabant obesity pill didn’t yield the hoped-for weight loss of 5 percent at the 2 mg dose the drugmaker hopes to sell, according to Reuters. And this occurred in Phase III testing, according to Aileen Salares [...]

The little drugmaker disclosed study results this morning indicating its experimental obesity pill doesn’t appear to cause the kind of heart-valve damage that forced Wyeth to withdraw two diet pills - one-half of the fen-phen combo and a related pill, Redux - exactly a decade ago.
An independent safety-monitoring group recommended that a two-year trial of [...]

Wyeth won a diet-drug case. A federal jury in St. Louis ruled this afternoon that Wyeth’s Pondimin, which was one-half of the infamous fen-phen weight-loss cocktail, didn’t damage a South Carolina woman’s heart. And it took just one hour to decide.
The decision comes a month after another jury in St. Louis ordered Wyeth to pay [...]

The drugmaker plans to withdraw its application with the FDA to sell its controverial diet pill in the US, according to a statement issued a short while ago. Nonetheless, the drugmaker vows to resubmit its request “at a future date…Sanofi-Aventis is committed to making all efforts necessary to make rimonabant available to patients in the [...]

This is predictable. Yesterday morning, a Walgreens’ in Santa Monica had 12 boxes of Alli. Four hours later, one box was left. “I have never in my life experienced anything like this,” store manager Roe Love, a pharmacist for 20 years, tells The Los Angeles Times. Who’s paying $59.99 for each box of 90 capsules? [...]

Look at it this way - Sanofi’s loss is Glaxo’s gain. Even though the FDA won’t make its final decision on Acomplia until the end of next month, the odds don’t look good that the agency will approve a diet pill that increases suicidal risk. Remember that some people may be depressed about their weight. [...]

What a week. Fat pills for you and your best friend. First, Glaxo is launching Alli, and today, Pfizer starts selling Slentrol, its new diet drug for dogs. But Pfizer’s marketing campaign raises an important question - how does one know if Pfido is truly pfat?
To solve this troubling dilemma, Pfizer has come up with [...]

That’s the punny expression used by the Prescription Access Litigation Project to taunt Glaxo and its forthcoming diet pill, which the advocacy group has named the winner of its latest annual Bitter Pill competition. The over-the-counter weight-loss drug debuts next week, and Glaxo is working furiously on an educational campaign to blunt criticism.
PAL, which usually [...]

Glaxo kicked off its ‘educational campaign’ yesterday for Alli, its new over-the-counter diet pill, which becomes available next month. The drug is really Roche’s prescription Xenical dressed up in new packaging. Well, really half the dose. Xenical, you may recall, didn’t do very well, thanks to modest weight loss and embarassing side effects.
And what are [...]