For those who prefer losing weight from the comfort of their living room couch while watching TV and eating a bag of potato chips with a large diet soda, the FDA has a new drug for you!
The new anti-obesity drug Qsymia manufactured by Vivus Inc. has recently been approved for overweight and obese people who have at least one other health problem related to weight such as hypertension, high cholesterol, or Type 2 diabetes.
The market for this highly anticipated new drug is huge, with more than 1/3 of US adults now obese.
Obesity projections are no doubt great news for Vivus Inc’s shareholders as overweight and obese people will likely total 80% of the adult population by 2020 with more than 1 in 5 children obese in just a few short years.
Qsymia Nothing More than Repackaged Fen-Phen
The new anti-obesity drug Qsymia was created using two older drugs: topiramate and phentermine. If phentermine sounds vaguely familiar, let me jog your memory.
Fen-phen, the popular weight loss drug tied to heart valve damage and yanked from the market in 1997 was, you guessed it, one half phentermine!
In a nutshell, this new anti-obesity drug Qsymia is fen-phen repackaged as … top-phen.
Thousands of lawsuits resulted from the damage caused by fen-phen with billions in settlements paid out to victims and their families.
That’s the standard business model in the pharmaceutical industry though. Simply repackage a drug removed from the market by changing it up a bit, get it approved, make a fortune fast and when it is yanked off the market for harming people, simply settle the lawsuits and chalk it up as a normal cost of doing business.
In the end, Vivus will likely make much much more than will ever be paid out in future lawsuits from Qsymia, so it is a sound business decision for shareholders to get it out there and get the revenue flowing quickly.
This strategy is, of course, unethical, but it is perfectly legal and a proven way to generate huge profits for the drug industry in a short period of time.
Qsymia Side Effects
Acknowledged side effects of Qsymia include tingling in the hands and feet, constipation, dry mouth, dizziness, and insomnia.
Wait a minute – insomnia? Isn’t lack of sleep a recognized and very big cause for overweight problems in the first place?
What Obesity Medicine Specialists (yes, they have a special name now) in their right minds would prescribe this for a patient?
It is important to note that the FDA rejected Qsymia, then known as Qnexa, in 2010 because it was associated with elevated heart rate, psychiatric problems and birth defects. No worries, Vivus submitted additional “safety data”, and the drug application was approved.
Qsymia Doesn’t Help You Lose That Much Weight
Here’s the kicker. A patient prescribed Qsymia will take on all this unknown health risk from taking a drug that was previously removed from the market over 10 years ago and whoops, not even lose that much weight.
Documentation submitted to the FDA indicated that nearly 70% of patients taking Qsymia for an entire year lost only 5% of their body weight compared with 20 percent of patients taking a placebo.
This means that a 250 lb person would only lose 12.5 lbs after taking Qsymia for a full year.
This insignificant weight loss certainly wouldn’t reduce the long term health risk of anything weight related!
An overweight or obese person would be much better off simply switching to grassfed meat than taking Qsymia. A typical 6 oz grassfed steak has approximately 100 fewer calories than a conventional 6 oz steak from grain fed cattle and since it is considerably more nutrient dense, fills you up better and you stay full longer. Since the average American consumes 66.5 lbs of beef per year, this simple change would cause a person to lose about 6 lbs per year with all else remaining the same.
Eat grassfed beef or take a new anti-obesity drug with many side effects that will no doubt be prescribed for children as well?
That’s an easy choice.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Source: Obesity Pill Qsymia Gains FDA Approval
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{ 60 comments… read them below or add one }
Scary!
Change it up a bit, repackage it, and rename it. Typical pharmaceutical industry shenanigans.
LOL @: “Couch potatoes rejoice!”
It’s back and instead of screwing with your heart, it screws with your head and makes you dumb and causes memory loss.
That’s scary. I also can’t believe how many people are jumping on the Sensa train.
Oh no…
bring back Stacker 2 over the counter.
Thanks for the heads up. The lack of significant weight loss, especially, is likely to sway people towards a safer direction.
That’s what I said OHHH NOOO!!
How many gimmicks are there? There are no shortcuts to life long health!
Not that this is a good thing, but I believe phentermine was never taken off the market. It was the “fen” part, fenfluromine that was causing the damage. So, this is not really fen phen, but phentermine combined with a different drug, Topomax, which is an anti-seizure medication.
And Topamax causes immediate anorexia and sudden, dangerous weight loss, in addition to a multitude of neurological problems and other troubling side effects. I took it for migraines for a short time and it felt like I was quite literally dying. Do not take these dangerous drugs.
You’re absolutely right, Sarah, that the profit potential far eclipses any liability down the road, so it’s just considered good business for the pharmaceutical companies. They make $$$billions before coming out with the next slightly reformulated harmful drug.
My good friend took Topamax and nearly lost her eyesight to acute glaucoma!
Health never comes from drugs, but from food and exercise. Every drug is a poison to some degree, interfering with the natural processes of our body. I have remained completely drug free for over ten years, meaning no prescription or non prescription drugs, not ever, and I am so much healthier.
Switching to grassfed meat is a great idea. In addition to having less calories, grassfed meat contains a substance, CLA, that actually causes the body to burn fat rather than store it.
I buy grassfed beef and I love the ground but I have tried the steaks acouple of times and they are so tough we had a hard time chewing them, very discouraging to fork out such high prices for this healthy food and then can’t eat it. I have read instructions on how to cook from hand outs from the farm that sells it and went on the internet – with no luck. Sarah, I think a good video on cooking grassfed steaks would be so helpful. What do you think about it? I love all you videos and have learned so much from them. Sometimes I watch them several times- I am a visual learner,,
You are so right about people eating the healthier foods for nutient dense calories instead of the drugs that kill. It is all about the money, money money! They don”t care that people die!. That is too bad!
You need to buy Stanley Fishman’s cookbook Tender Grassfed Meat and learn how to cook it so that it melts in your mouth. Disclaimer – Stanley is a good friend of mine
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist\’s last post: Couch Potatoes Rejoice! Repackaged Fen-Phen Approved
Will do!
I have had the same problem, Teresa. To the point that my husband wants me to go to the store to buy the “regular steaks” so we don’t have to cut around all the tough parts! I am curious to find out if there is a way to avoid that.
Wow! A drug that is pulled from the market and combined with topiramate which is generic Topimax. Topimax is used to treat seizures in people who have epilepsy. The common term for Topimax among people who have tried it or use it is “DOPE-A-MAX”. My daughter, who is in college, had to discontinue use of topiramate because the side affects of the drug left her unable to do simple math.
Epilepsy can be healed with a high fat, ketogenic diet and healing the gut (see the Epilepsy section in the 2010 edition of the GAPS book). But that doesn’t make companies billions of profits, so it’s kept out of the limelight.
I agree, Topamax impairs neurological function. Simple reading and math become difficult. Memory is impaired. Nerve problems arise out of nowhere. And immediate anorexia and lack of appetite is common. I guess all the more reason to push it as a diet pill!
My boss has been taking topamax since this spring and has lost a ton of weight (maybe 60lbs). She has really bad knees (due to her weight) and was told no surgery until she looses a ton of weight. I had no idea the side effects. Scary. Luckily no heavy machinery is involved at work.
Oh no!
/sigh
No thank you!
Also not mentioned…topirate, the new addition to this combo is contraindicated in pregnancy and conception. It causes major birth defects, so that adds another layer of complications for women prescribed this med.
Sorry, that’s Topiramate, dang spell check.
Better living through chemicals! .<
to loose weight I atel all I wanted of RAW aklaine organic veggies and juiced them. Live living food healed me.. fat is acidous too much acid foods.. Lost 45 lbs in 3 months and never was hungry, was getting nutrition plus detoxing the body.. also Dr Clarks liver recipe helped too. cleaning up the bodys immunes system that is not only the bodies immune system but sorts fats sugars.. etc. I eat grass fed beef once in a while, it is tender. I know who raised my beef and know what it ate, no vaccines etc… so buyer beware of labels that say grass fed beef. even organic grass fed beef can be given vaccines.. just say’n….
I love hearing stories like yours! You are inspiring! GOOD JOB!!!
Half of phen-phen was phentermine. The other half was amphetamine. The amphetamine half was what was causing the heart problems. They never outlawed phentermine. In fact, I got a prescription for it a few years ago as an appetite supressant. It worked great; I would forget to eat. The problem is, as soon as I stopped taking it I remembered again.
Not a great long-term solution.
As far as I know, there haven’t been any heart issues associated with phentermine.
Hi Carolyn
If you are wanting to lose weight then I highly recommend changing the challenge from weight loss to avoiding sugar. It’s amazing how quickly the weight falls off when you don’t consume it – even with eating healthy fats and following Sarah’s healthy eating recommendations. You’ll also be shocked to see that sugar is in almost everything processed – it’s quite scary!
Anyway, I lost lots of weight this way as the challenge became avoiding sugar which took my mind off losing weight – I only realised how much I was losing a couple of months down the track when my jeans fell off me when I was putting them on – then I realised that all my skirts were falling straight off, without even moving. Crazy. Was also a sign I was spending too much time inside in my trackpants! (baby and middle eastern summer). Good luck
Do you mean just refined sugars? Do you include fruit, too?
I was working with a nutritionist for a while, and he recommended I give up grains, dairy, all refined sugar, etc. and eat raw food. I think I could do the sugar, but rest was just too hard.
I’m about 9 months pregnant and will be nursing soon, so I’lll probably use that as my main dietary focus. I think avoiding sugar in any case is a good idea because I have a history of insulin resistance.
Don’t get me wrong I think all diet drugs are bad news, but this article is terribly misleading from a source that I usually look to for truth. fen-phen was a combination of fenfluramine and phentermine. The fenfluramine was found to cause all of the symptoms/ deaths. It was pulled from the market and, as far as I know, is no longer sold/available. The phentermine has always stayed available to anyone who can obtain a Dr’s prescription. phentermine does have its own problems. Be prepared if you need to take a UA to fail and have your results test positive for amphetamines.
I am sorry buit a public hanging for the exec.(s) that authorized this would be fitting. This is not only unethical but it is immoral, dispicable, and any other adjective you want to put to it.
They must have been planning this for a while. The FDA made the homeopathic hCG manufacturers remove their product from the market last fall. As i, and 20 people i know, all had excellent results with the homeopathic hCG i am incensed! Also, the manufacturers are allowed to sell a supplement marketed to look like the original hCG, but they contain none. Instead they have a variety of herbs. A nutritionist tried to tell me they are “essentially the same” but i had a severe negative response to the drops, and someone else i know ended up in ER.
Stupid, stupid FDA.
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Wow, unbelievable yet sadly not shocking. Yet the consumer demands this poison. It’s the easy fix.
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Sarah,
I appreciated the article–while I would never take a weight loss drug myself, I have friends and family who would consider it and this is good to pass along. I also wanted to share that I take objection to the picture of the headless fat person at the beginning of the article. I’m fat. I’ve been fat for as long as I can remember and healthy self esteem in the face of our culture’s view of fat people is a daily challenge. I’ve started losing weight effortlessly in the past year because I finally found a doctor (ND) who bothered to do in depth thyroid testing on me which uncovered hypothyroidism and turned me on to the paleo/primal lifestyle. Despite my weight loss, I’m still fat and will possibly be for a grand long time, but I’m truly okay with it because I’ve come to love my body.
The picture bothered me personally for two reasons. First, not all fat people are lazy and the picture rather implies that. Most importantly though, “headless fatties” are presented as objects and blobs of fat meant to appear disgusting and shameful. Please don’t fall into this trap–don’t objectify that man or other fat people and don’t imply by including that picture with your article that you see people who are fat as just their bodies or as an object to be disgusted by. This article provides a good summation on why using these kind of pictures is harmful and dangerous: http://www.charlottecooper.net/docs/fat/headless_fatties.htm
Thank you for reading,
Nicole
Thank you, Nicole. You said beautifully exactly what I was thinking. Demonizing and stereotyping fat people is no better than selling them dangerous medications for weight loss.
It seems there are more stumbling blocks in the road ahead to find a significantly effective weight-loss drug with a low side effect profile.
For the first time in thirteen years, the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has approved a weight-loss pill. Belviq, which also goes by the generic name of lorcaserin, was given a FDA nod despite concerns about safety issues. The “diet pill” is to be taken in conjunction with a reduced calorie diet and a program of exercise.
Lorcaserin has been approved for use by obese adults with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more or overweight adults with a BMI of 27 or more if they have a co-morbidity of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, or high cholesterol.
The drug was tested in placebo-controlled clinical trials including subjects with and without type 2 diabetes. The treatment extended from 52 to 104 weeks. Patients treated with lorcaserin lost an average of 3 to 3.7 percent of their body weight in a period of up to one-year.
Translated, this means a woman who is 5′ 6″ tall and weighs 190 with a BMI of 30 can expect to lose six pounds.
It is recommended the drug be discontinued for patients who fail to lose five percent of their body weight after twelve weeks of treatment.
A panel of expert advisors recommended that the FDA approve sales of lorcaserin despite concerns about heart risks, tumor growth, and initial rejection for market.
The panel approved public sale of lorcaserin by a vote of 18-4 with one abstention citing the belief that the benefits outweighed the risks.
Learn more about the side effects of lorcaserin here: http://www.healthcentral.com/obesity/c/276918/154206/lorcaserin-loss
Ahem, did everyone pick up on the fact that the clinical trials lasted a year or more and the subjects lost 3-3.7% of body weight, but the FDA approves the drug with the recommendation that it be discontinued for patients who fail to lose five percent of their body weight after twelve weeks of treatment?!?!
SMH…
Personally, I am a reformed process food junkie. After having bariatric surgery in 2003 and losing 100lbs, I have slowly and surely educated myself on factory-farming and real food. Today, my family and I – including my dogs – #JERF, and we use organic products for cleaning and grooming as I learn about the causes of cancer (environment). Thanks for spreading the word, Sara. I try to do the same.
- MBL
Doctors need to push more running around the block and putting the Big Mac and supersized fries and “diet” soda with zero calories down. Uggh!
Hah! What doctor? Since having gone paleo in 2009 I haven’t seen a doctor.
obesity causing gmo NOT approved. obesity drug approved. makes me wanna holla.
Wow….for the Almighty Dollar they will do anything………..any news about the Food retraining camps!
that’s all we need, another pill and all it’s side effects!
Why do you think a doctor would “push” it on you? I always educate my patients on diet changes to lose weight and be healthy and I would never promote a weight loss medication because I don’t think they work, let alone the dangers. I don’t understand why you have such a hatred of medical professionals. Have you had such a traumatizing experience that you have lost all faith whatsoever in a group of professionals who 99% of the time are simply trying to help you with a problem that YOU came to them with. Don’t like medical advice? Don’t go to a medical provider. I used to like your site, but I’m sick of my profession as a whole being bashed by someone who should just stick to talking about good food and it’s benefits. It’s much more pleasant that way.
Unbiased? Hardly.
Will people never learn?!?
Gosh, Liz.
Amy
Dang auto correct….. Not Amy its supposed to be smh
Liz Hull, I think your numbers are completely wrong. 99% are trying to help??!! Doctors DO push pharmaceuticals on me and my kids ALL OF THE TIME! This is a fact. Don’t you read the comments from real people on her posts? Sorry if that is a tough pill for you to swallow(pun intended). I’ve walked out of more “medical professionals” offices than I can count on 2 hands and feet. I would love for my family to be treated like people and not numbers when we go to the dr. and not get scolded for choosing not to immunize my children or put them on antibiotics that aren’t necessary most of the time. I don’t like medical advice so I no longer seek it. It’s MUCH more pleasant that way.
Keep burying your head in the sand. I’m sure there’s a pill for that too.
Again Wow…..Painting a Pretty picture of Healthcare has never been a luxury I have exsperianced….I would love to Have a Doctor who read from the reports & gave factual information concerning my health & delt with the underlying causes without throwing me under the acceptable side effects bus in the little bag of pills.
Its these same people that take this stuff that also blame society for their problems left and right, day in and day out.
@ Liz Hull , good to hear that you take your patients health from side effects into consideration. Due to an accident I have been a part of the medical world for more than half my life. I cannot tell you how many Dr.’s I have seen that really only cared about bandaid work( treating the symptoms and not the problem) nor how many unnecessary drugs I have been prescribed. Hopefully for all of us there really are more Dr.’s out there that care more about the person than the almighty dollar. It is good to know that you are open to real nutrition which we can follow through blogs like this one.
Sorry Liz, I have had one excellent dr. She was my OB/GYN Dr. Mary Mirto in Austin and delivered all of my children. The one and only pleasant experience i’ve had. Are you so naive that traumatic experiences don’t happen to real people hundreds of times a day? Also, to say that someone hates medical professionals is a strong statement to make about someone who genuinely cares about people and their health. Who are you to tell someone that they should stick to writing about one subject only because it offends you in some way? If you don’t like it then don’t read it. Just as you said if you don’t like medical professionals then don’t go to them. If you’re sick of your profession as a whole being bashed then you may want to find a new profession. It’s not gonna stop until your profession stops selling out to Big Pharma. Perhaps you could do some research on your own that they didn’t teach you in medical school on your down time. I’d think you would be quite busy on a Tuesday afternoon treating very sick patients instead of being on Facebook. Who would’ve guessed that ever happened??
I was put on Topiramate (Topamax) for migraine prevention (before I knew better). I did lose weight…and my sex drive…and my mind! Didn’t prevent my migraines! Not good!
seriously Valerie? Maybe you should be diagnoised 9 times with fibramyalgia & then be sedated for a different surgury only to have your Doctors Note you had a spinal injury that fused your neck Shoulders!…………I told the Doctors at every visit it was’nt fibromyalgia it was from Knocking myself out at the bottem of the pool …or going throught the windshield in an accident…or my seat giveing way in a car accident….I REFUSED to be diagnoised with Fibramyalgia so they couldnt put me on Disability!.
I always emailed this webpage post page to all my contacts, because if like to read it after that my contacts will too.
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