Weight loss, anti-smoking drug Acomplia could be on the market by 2006

• A single pill has been found to stop both food and cigarette cravings enough to help people quit smoking and lose weight, and could also help curb other unhealthy urges.
• Named Acomplia the drug in one study helped people who were overweight drop an average of 20 pounds and in another doubled the chances that smokers would quit.
• Rimonabant (which will be brought to market as Acomplia) works by blocking the CB1 receptor, one of two receptors found in a newly described physiological system called the Endocannabinoid System (EC System), believed to play a critical role in the regulation of food intake and energy expenditure.
• Researchers wondered whether a drug that halted this action might curb appetite, and in 2001, the first animal study was conducted at the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in Bethesda, Md.
• When the normal mice were given rimonabant, which blocked their CB1 receptors, the mice reduced their food intake.In 2002, Sanofi-Synthelabo began human testing.
• Acomplia works by selectively targeting and blocking the CB1 receptors, helping normalize the over-activation of the EC system and making hunger or cigarette cravings more manageable.
• This blocking of signals that control cravings appears to result in weight loss, improvement of cardiovascular/ metabolic risk factors in overweight/obese patients and appears to reduce tobacco dependence without post cessation weight gain in people who smoke.
• Meridia (Reductil in Europe) was originally a drug meant to treat depressions and can have severe side-effects as well, like high blood pressure, sleeping problems (Insomnia), constipation and dry-mouth syndrome.
• This causes a lot of strain on many of the body systems and phentermine should therefore not be used for longer periods and only in obesity cases and not for treating common overweight.