Maker of Acomplia claims it kills the urge for food and cigarettes

• A pill that helps you lose weight, quit smoking, and reduce the cardiovascular risks for diabetes and heart disease.
• Sanofi-Aventis SA's new treatment, Acomplia, also known as rimonabant, has shown promise in a half-dozen clinical trials in curbing the cravings that make people hungry and reach for a cigarette.
• The experimental drug, which works differently from other weight-loss medicines, could be approved by the Food and Drug Administration as soon as this month.
• And industry analysts predict it could become the world's first blockbuster antiobesity treatment, with annual sales of 2 billion to 4 billion euros, or $2.4 billion to $4.8 billion.
• In studies, a 20-milligram dose once a day helped patients lose 5 percent to 10 percent of their weight in a year, raise good HDL cholesterol, lower triglycerides, and improve blood sugar and blood pressure.
• If Acomplia gets marketing approval from the FDA later this month, Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis, which employs 1,000 at its drug-development center in Malvern, has said it could begin selling the pill by June 30.
• Rimonabant is the first in a new class of medicines that works in the body's endocannabinoid system, which has a role in appetite.
• Yet pharmaceutical companies are still seeking a magic pill for obesity.
• With about 30 percent of U.S. adults obese - more than 60 million people - and 16 percent of children and teens overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the potential market is huge, analysts say.
• Wadden said scientists identified a part of the brain "associated with eating or overeating" - the cannabinoid receptor - and learned there are natural substances in the body that turn the receptor on.
• "Obesity medications get no respect," said Penn's Wadden.