Over-the-counter weight loss pill hits shelves
BY DELTHIA RICKS
The first weight-loss pill to receive government approval as an over-the-counter drug goes on sale Friday in pharmacies and supermarkets nationwide, offering hope for the thousands of Americans who want to lose weight.
Called alli (pronounced "ally"), the GlaxoSmithKline drug works by preventing the absorption of fat consumed in a meal and is being ushered into the weight-loss arena on a $150 million advertising budget that includes television and radio commercials, print ads and large displays in stores. Nearly 5,000 Walgreens pharmacies nationwide are among the outlets carrying the drug, a spokeswoman for GlaxoSmithKline said.
Steven Burton, GlaxoSmithKline's vice president for weight control in the company's consumer health care division, said the pill is to be taken in combination with a low-fat diet and an exercise program to influence greater weight loss. It costs approximately $1.80 a day.
"You can lose more weight and keep the weight off when you make changes in lifestyle," he said.
Despite the fanfare, some weight-loss experts took a wait-and-see approach, while others welcomed the pill and still others took a dim view of the drug.
Dr. Irwin Klein, chief of endocrinology and metabolism at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, underscored that alli is not new. It is a lower-dose version of orlistat, he said, which has been sold as Xenical. GlaxoSmithKline acquired the rights to the medication in 2005.
Klein said alli carries the same side effects as Xenical. "This drug impairs the ability of the normal gastrointestinal tract to absorb fat," he said. Among the side effects are frequent bowel movements.
Klein said diet pills cannot replace a sound diet and a daily routine of aerobic exercise. He worries about GlaxoSmithKline's advertising blitz and its message that a diet pill can solve obesity.
Dr. Dennis Gage, a weight loss specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, said he was unimpressed with alli. "The reality of weight-loss pills is that people rarely lose weight when they take them. And when they do lose weight, it comes back."
Xenical, the drug's prescription-grade cousin, produces only moderate weight loss, Gage said, and was never considered "a blockbuster drug."
He described the so-called Thinderella syndrome as someone who works hard to lose weight through dieting and pills, only to become depressed when the weight returns with resumption of previous eating habits.
Lovelina Nadkarni, chief clinical dietician at Brookhaven Rehabilitation and Health Care Center in Far Rockaway, said Xenical is routinely used at the facility, where people who weigh as much as 1,000 pounds are treated. She cautioned that alli, like Xenical, will cause the loss of fat-soluble vitamins A,D,E and K.
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