FDA Panel Endorses Weight Loss Pill

A weight loss pill gets a thumbs-up from an FDA panel of experts, even though the agency rejected it two years ago.

FOX News Radio’s Chris Stanley reports:

It was October 2010 when the Food and Drug Administration rejected the anti-obesity drug Qnexa, citing studies that showed it raises heart rates and causes heart palpitations.

But now an FDA panel of outside physicians has voted 20-to-2 to recommend FDA approval of Qnexa, due to its impressive weight-loss results, with most users losing nearly 10% of their overall weight after a year on the drug.

The group stressed that Vivus, the maker of Qnexa, would have to be required to do a followup study of the pill’s effects on the heart, but that could wait, they say, until after FDA approval.

There are an estimated 75 million obese adults in the U.S.

Chris Stanley, FOX News Radio