Lorcaserin: The new miracle obesity drug that isn’t

31st March 2009

Lorcaserin: The new miracle obesity drug that isn’t

posted in Body Politic, Drugs & Medications, New Research |

Drug manufacturers Merck and Sanofi-Aventi both discontinued obesity drugs last year after clinical trials showed a host of psychiatric problems, ranging from depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. But that didn’t keep Arena Pharmaceuticals from searching for the elusive pill of thinness. The company said this week that its experimental drug to treat obesity, lorcaserin, had “succeeded” in its first late-stage clinical trial, producing results it said would be good enough for regulatory approval.

Before you get your hopes up, let’s first consider the company’s definition of “success.” According to the New York Times:

About 47.5 percent of the patients who took lorcaserin lost at least 5 percent of their weight after one year, compared with 20.3 percent of the patients who received a placebo. That is enough to satisfy the F.D.A. requirements for approval.

But the average weight loss for those taking the drug was 12.7 pounds, or 5.8 percent of body weight, compared with 4.7 pounds, or 2.2 percent for those in the placebo group. The difference between the two groups — 3.6 percent — is lower than the 5 percent requirement of the F.D.A.

Yes, that’s right. Adjusting for the placebo, study participants lost just 3.6 percent of their body weight. And that’s combined with a “moderate diet and exercise program” included in this phase of the study! For a 200-lb person, that’s just 7 pounds in one year; a 300-lb person would see just a 10 pound weight loss in one year — and again, that’s after taking lorcaserin combined with dieting and exercising! That “success” rate is less than the placebo-adjusted weight loss for Meridia, — known as Reductil overseas — a drug already on the market (although it’s been suspended in Italy and Abbott, its manufacturer, is facing scores of lawsuits for both the drug’s side effects and ineffectiveness) and is also no better than what can be achieved through traditional dieting, although it would probably make the extravagantly high costs of NutriSystem and Jenny Craig look like chump change. Meridia, for example, costs about $90 a month, has a very minimal success rate and is often not covered by prescription drug plans.

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see that one of the primary reasons why lorcaserin and other diet drugs like it don’t work is because they are myopic in scope. Lorcaserin, Accomplia, and taranbant work in different ways — Taranbant and Accomplia sought to block the same pleasure centers that give marijuana smokers the “munchies,” while lorcaserin stimulates a receptor in the brain that is thought to regulate food intake — but all drugs focus on appetite suppression, suggesting an assumption that fat people are fat because they eat too much, presumably unhealthy foods. This is despite the fact that researchers have identified more than 250 genetic markers for obesity and have concluded that these factors account for at least 67 percent of why one is fat. Focusing solely on appetite suppression is about as likely to “cure” obesity as is amputating a leg when what’s really needed is a hip replacement.

Lorcaserin isn’t a “promising investigative oral treatment for obesity” as touted by the company. At best, it might make obese people only infinitesimally less obese. The only arena in which it appears as if lorcaserin would be effective is in slenderizing a fat wallet.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 10:27 am and is filed under Body Politic, Drugs & Medications, New Research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On March 31st, 2009, Bree said:

I had asked my former doctor (he retired last year) about Meridia several years back. He refused to even consider it for me, not because of the side effects, but because he didn’t think I needed to take it. Looking back on it, I’m glad he did refuse.

The medical community needs to step back and stop assuming appetite is the #1 reason for fat. Yes, we do know there are people who suffer from a binge disorder, but not all fat people have “unhealthy” relationships with food.

posted on March 31st, 2009 at 11:21 am

2 On March 31st, 2009, limesarah said:

*blinks* Ok, my weight can fluctuate by as much as 10 pounds just week to week, and I’m much lighter than most people in their study. Statistics should not be used for evil, people.

posted on March 31st, 2009 at 11:46 am

3 On March 31st, 2009, Rachel said:

Yes, we do know there are people who suffer from a binge disorder, but not all fat people have “unhealthy” relationships with food.

Right, and even for those people who do struggle with compulsive overeating or bingeing, appetite suppression pills are unlikely to be successful because often the compulsions to eat and binge are psychological, not physiological.

posted on March 31st, 2009 at 11:55 am

4 On March 31st, 2009, attrice said:

I don’t see how they can approve medications that lead to a 5% drop in body weight. I don’t know anything at all about pharmacology, but are there a ton of drugs out there that are approved for use, but barely work? I mean, is there not a minimum level of effectiveness needed? Some percentage of effectiveness above placebo that must be met?

There’s something about appetite suppressants in general that don’t sit well with me. If you’re hungry all the time, then your body is sending you a signal that you shouldn’t ignore. And if your appetite undergoes a radical increase (or decrease) then you should see a doctor.

posted on March 31st, 2009 at 12:54 pm

5 On March 31st, 2009, Miriam said:

Good call.

posted on March 31st, 2009 at 1:18 pm

6 On March 31st, 2009, CassandraSays said:

Oh ffs. I gain and lose about 7 pounds every time I get my period. 10 pounds isn’t even enough to make a difference in a person’s clothes size unless they’re pretty tiny.

Can’t wait to see what the list of side effects will be this time. Is the FDA seriously going to keep approving this shit?

posted on March 31st, 2009 at 4:33 pm

7 On April 1st, 2009, littlem said:

And now, a small rant.

Why the (*&^%$# do they continue to work on this (literal) CRAP instead of the one that’s supposed to help people with physical limitations work out?!? You know, the ones of us that want to work out, don’t wish to mangle our digestive systems, would like to avoid depression, anxiety and suicide, and continue to wear white pants???

Is there a new addendum to the Hippocratic Oath stating that patients are required to suffer, to debase and torture themselves, because they have elected to request assistance and care???

I have a suspicion I may be a shade OT; that a lot of the post is not about things I’ve touched on. But I’m just. so. angry.

/rant

posted on April 1st, 2009 at 3:39 am

8 On June 2nd, 2009, malletfingers said:

hah exactly my point, why add extra chemicals and pay for them with recession funds to gain potential side effects and not loose much weight at the same time. imho curing the cause is more important than the symptom and changing a habit can take as long as seven years, way longer than anyone can afford to be on meds

posted on June 2nd, 2009 at 10:59 am

9 On August 6th, 2009, Sapcomm said:

As a former Clinical ginipig for this product I can tell you it worked well for me. When I began the study I weighed 285lbs. Almost 1 year later I weighed 240lbs. No to bad. The catch is I took a Taranabant 6mg tablet while other participant were getting a much lower dosage. The effect after a while caused irritability and depressing thoughts despite my tremendous weight loss. I did not desire to each as much and made healthy choices, but the Depression and Anxiety that came with it, was much worse then the end effects. I think I was paid between $20 and $40 for each exame while on these meds. It was a 2 year study. Half way into year two I had a nervous breakdown and had to drop out of the study. They did not want to provide me with a counslor unless I continued to stay with the study. I completely dropped out and got my life back on track, and Oh yes the weight came back quickly. I am once again back down in weight, but being at 235 currently I have to watch what I eat. Good luck and I hope this information helps.

posted on August 6th, 2009 at 11:18 am

10 On August 6th, 2009, Rachel said:

Wow, how horrible! I’m glad to hear that you’re doing better now. I’m confused, though. Given all your problems with the drug, you still think that it “worked well” for you?

posted on August 6th, 2009 at 12:22 pm

11 On August 6th, 2009, malletfingers said:

oy that sounds not so fun…agree with Rachel and my question is how you knew how much you were given, clinical studies are most often blinded or double blinded

posted on August 6th, 2009 at 12:39 pm

12 On August 6th, 2009, Rachel said:

Maybe Sapcomm was told what dosage he/she had been given after dropping out of the study.

posted on August 6th, 2009 at 1:03 pm

13 On August 6th, 2009, malletfingers said:

yeah..that’s possible, but to know that others were given much less…study cohorts are usually rather equal in size and each large enough to allow for statistical evaluations…well just does not make sense to me.

posted on August 6th, 2009 at 1:09 pm

14 On August 6th, 2009, Sapcomm said:

In regards to it working well Yes and No. Yes I did loose the weight, but yes I did suffer the problems from the medication.

- Letter information name and clinic removed -

Dr Mr. (Blank)
You previously participated in a research study at (Blank). The study was a 2 years study to assess efficacy, safety, and tolerabilty of Taranabant (MK-0364) in obese patients followed by a 1 Year extension (Protocol 15). During your participation in the above you recieved Taranabant MK-0364 6mg meds followed by pacebo. If you have any further questions please contact us.

The side affects were not good, but it helped them to realize in smaller doses it could be used just as effective without the side effects being so drastic. This was a Merck Study. Worked well in terms of loosing weight, but not in success because of the issues that occured with me, and the returned weight.
So Rachel I believe you are correct I shouldn’t say it worked well, I should have said the product did as intended, but with many adverse effects.

posted on August 6th, 2009 at 2:07 pm

15 On September 30th, 2009, Tamara said:

Because of the fenfluramine debacle, Arena has been performing cardiac tests on the trial participants to prove that lorcaserin doesn’t damage the heart the way fenfluramine did. That’s great…. but lorcaserin is a 5-HT2C receptor agonist, and the vast majority of 5-HT2C receptors are in the brain. Arena isn’t checking the trial participants brains. Why not?

posted on September 30th, 2009 at 4:26 pm

16 On October 26th, 2009, Anne Bitburg said:

My sister died from phen fen. She was 30. It was a slow, dying process, lingering over three months where each minute felt like she had a pillow over her mouth and nose. She was not obese; yet her doctor subscribed this medication.

Thousands, primarily young women, were murdered, yes murdered because of this drug due to the greed of Big Pharma and politicians who work for them (not the American people), to pressure the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve the drug. The human beings in the big pharma industry too often are only interested in the bottom line, not your health. Check out big pharmas websites and see how much they lie, invest in PR, not the truth. Read Dispensing with the Truth. Far from a perfect book but it shows to what depth of bean counting BIG PHARMA goes: they do a cost analysis where they may anticipate law suits but they will make so much profit that the lawsuits barely touch the billions they make selling dangerous drugs, via their millions spent on advertising (now, advertising straight to ‘future’ clients).

And ploy these companies do is create pathologies. This is especially the case drugs for ‘mental health’ problems. So, to be human, have a bad hair day, be a tired full time mom who also works out of the house..so instead of looking at her life, if there is a social safety net, is there time off for family, holiday time….no, big pharma will now say your being tired is because you have a mental health problem…so they create illnesses so they can make money marketing legal drugs to people.

Understand that FDA is not a seal of approval. They base their decision on drug approval based on the information that the drug companies voluntarily give them.

Very few people are obese due to organic reasons, some metabolism imbalance; rather, they are obese due to emotional or psychological problems – childhood issues, trauma, loneliness, etc. This is especially acute in the USA where the society offers little for its citizens by way of collective and puts such burden on the ‘individual’ to sort things out: unemployment, health care, raising children, etc.

Bigpharma is primarily interested in profit, at your expense especially when it comes to the ‘fat problem.’ They are working collaboratively with the food manufacturers and the corn industry that is fattening Americans up to a level unknown in human history. America’s rat race culture, with only two weeks of holiday, if lucky, and most of its citizens living in suburbs where car culture reins.

I cannot emphasis enough, to not trust any diet pill, over the counter or prescription. IF you truly want to go down the pill route, please, for your sake and all who care for you, to do your homework, don’t be submissive with doctors: ask, ask and ask questions, read everything about the drug. Ask if the drug has a black box – this indicates that there are serious affects with the drug. Read about the manufactuerer. Are they being sued? Google them.

posted on October 26th, 2009 at 10:54 pm

17 On December 22nd, 2009, Sam said:

Looks like it has been submitted to the FDA today.

posted on December 22nd, 2009 at 7:46 pm

18 On December 23rd, 2009, Andrea said:

This new drug appears to be a combination of Phentermine and Topamax. Topamax is a seizure medication and is also used to prevent migraine headaches. For people who do not experience migranes, but use Topamax, headaches are frequent. And phentermine is, for lack of a better term, speed. Both result in weightloss independently, which is my guess as to why they have combined the two. Perhaps combined it compounds the weightloss. The down sides, however are significant. Long term use of speed can result in permanent anhedonia, the inability to experience pleasure and once speed/phentermine is stopped the weight returns but the anehdonia may not resolve. And for many people who have tried Topamax for weight loss and do not suffer from migranes, Topamax is referred to as “Dope”-amax because of the impact on the brain including much slower cognition, slower recall etc. And as with other antisezure medication, Topamax can make birth control pills less effective. Sounds like a risky combination to me.

posted on December 23rd, 2009 at 3:01 pm

19 On May 5th, 2010, Hm said:

I am doing research on this drug, and I have seen a few pages of comments and reviews from people trying…. it doesn’t look good. Most people experience depression and not much weight loss.

On top of that, the tests are pretty crap.

I’d stay away! Do your own research, don’t listen to me if ya dont want!

posted on May 5th, 2010 at 7:46 pm