Miracle diet pill? Safe drug elusive

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The battle of the bulge has been a big, fat failure for U.S. drugmakers. But that hasn?t stopped them from trying.

For nearly a century, scientists have struggled to make a diet pill that helps people lose weight without side effects that range from embarrassing digestive issues to dangerous heart problems.

But this week, federal health advisers endorsed the weight loss pill Qnexa even though the FDA previously rejected it over concerns that it can cause heart palpitations and birth defects if taken by pregnant women.

The vote of confidence raises hopes that the U.S. could approve its first anti-obesity drug in more than a decade. It also highlights how challenging it is to create a pill that fights fat in a variety of people without negative side effects.

?Having a drug for obesity would be like telling me you had a drug for the fever,? said Dr. Mitchell Roslin, chief of bariatric surgery at Northern Westchester Hospital in New York. ?There can be millions of different reasons why someone is obese; it?s really a symptom of various underlying mechanisms.?

An effective and safe diet pill would be an easy sale in the U.S.: With more than 75 million obese adults, the nation?s obesity rate is nearing 35 percent. But the biggest challenge in creating a weight-loss drug is that there doesn?t appear to be a safe way to turn off one of the human body?s most fundamental directives.

For millions of years, humans have been programmed to consume calories and store them as energy, or fat. It?s this biological mechanism that makes it almost impossible to quickly lose weight by not eating. Cutting down on food instead sends stronger signals to the body to store more calories.

?Throughout most of human history calories were scarce and hard to get, so we have numerous natural defenses against starvation,? said Dr. David Katz of Yale University?s Prevention Research Center. ?We have no defenses against overeating because we never needed them before.?

The drug industry has been on a nearly 100-year search for a drug that can help the body shed pounds. addiction. Most drugmakers now are focusing on medications that block brain signals associated with food craving and appetite.

Vivus? Qnexa is one of a trio of drugs seeking FDA approval. The diet pill, which was initially rejected due to the risks of heart palpitations and other safety issues, The FDA is expected to issue its decision on Qnexa by mid-April.

?The potential benefits of this medication seem to trump the side effects,? said FDA panel member Dr. Kenneth Burman of the Washington Hospital Center in Washington DC. ?But in truth, only time will tell.?

Tammy Wade of McCalla, Ala., is confident that the diet pill works. She lost nearly 40 pounds, dropping down to 167 while in a two-year Qnexa study.

?I never lost that much weight on any of the programs I?ve tried,? said Wade, who?s done everything from Weight Watchers to workouts with a personal trainer.