Weight-Loss Drug Fails
A once promising weight-loss drug that produced encouraging results in animal studies has failed to deliver in a real-world trial of humans and will be shelved, the pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co. announced Tuesday.
The drug, known as MK-0557, was designed to focus on a "hunger-stimulating factor," which has long been considered a potential target for anti-obesity therapy. And while the drug was well tolerated by the 832 obese people who finished the trial, they only lost an average of 7.5 pounds during the 12-month study, compared with people taking a placebo who lost an average of 4 pounds.
This is a bad news for Merck, but perhaps good news for people who need to lose weight. Who knows what serious side effects such a drug would have caused in long-term use. If it ends up taking your weight off, but causing serious illnesses, you are much better off losing weight the simple way. If the drug ends up giving someone a terminal illness, it does what it claims and some - it takes all your weight off.
posted by Terry at
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