| ■ Novel Weight-Loss Drug to Be Launched in Britain | 06.06.30 |
| Britons will be the first to gain access to Sanofi-Aventis' much-anticipated diet drug Acomplia (rimonabant), but obese Americans will have to wait for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's possible approval later this year. The European Union on Wednesday approved the heralded pill, which in trials cut users' body weight by up to 10 percent within a year, Britain's Daily Mail reported. The drug works by curbing a person's appetite. The pill and its hefty price tag of nearly $100 a month won't be available to the British masses just yet, the newspaper noted, because Britain's National Health Service hasn't decided whether to subsidize it. Rollouts of rimonabant are expected soon in Denmark, Ireland, Germany, Finland, and Norway, the Daily Mail said. The U.S. FDA has asked Sanofi for additional data before considering approval, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Yahoo, HealthDay |