Originally published June 11 2005
Amylin introduces new weight loss drug
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
San Diego-based pharmaceutical company Amylin recently introduced its new weight-loss drug, pramlintide, which helped obese participants in a 16-week study lose 3.6 percent more body weight than those who took a placebo. The participants who took pramlintide also had significant reduction in waist circumference and did not reach the diet "plateau," where weight loss tapers off. The most serious side effect reported was mild nausea, and Amylin is in the process of additional testing.
Obese people who took a drug developed by San Diego-based Amylin Pharmaceuticals for 16 weeks progressively lost up to 3.6 percent more weight compared with those who took a placebo, the company said yesterday.
The trial subjects also showed a significant and progressive reduction in their waist circumference, a recognized measure of abdominal obesity and cardiovascular risk.
And the loss appeared not to diminish or stop, a phenomenon known to dieters as reaching a plateau, the company said.
Advertisement Amylin released the early-stage clinical trial results of its drug pramlintide at an obesity conference in Greece.
The drug is a synthetic analog of human amylin, a hormone known to play a role in the regulation of appetite and food intake by helping people to feel full, said Dan Bradbury, Amylin's chief operating officer.
Forty-four of those people have type 2 diabetes and are not being treated with insulin.
Earlier this year the Food and Drug Administration gave Amylin approval to sell Symlin as a therapy for people with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
The patients taking pramlintide for the obesity study were given about double the amount of the drug compared to the people who take it in the form of Symlin, Bradbury said.
The company noticed the weight loss effect of the drug when studying Symlin on diabetics.
Analysis of the trial data showed that the people who lost the most weight, about five percent of their total weight over 16 weeks, had a body mass index of 30 to 35 kilograms.
The most serious side effect reported was mild nausea.
Amylin recently started enrolling people in what will be a 16-week escalating dose study of about 400 obese, non-diabetic people.
These people will also be required to participate in a program to change their eating and exercising habits.
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