Acomplia has been prescribed to over 130,000 people with weight problems...

The financial figures released by the drug company Sanofi Aventis show that while sales of their weight loss drug Acomplia are significant at 15 million euros they have not attained the sort of levels that would justify the vast amount of investment in research and development that went into producing the drug.  Since the United Kingdom allowed the sale of Acomplia in June 2006, Sanofi Aventis say that their new weight loss drug has been prescribed to over 130,000 people with weight problems.

Sanofi Aventis say that the reason why the sales have not been as good as they would like is because many people do not fully understand how effective the drug can be not only for losing weight but also as a drug to help control undesirable metabolic factors. Sanofi Aventis received approval from the European drug authorities to market and sell the Acomplia drug as not only a weight loss drug but also for metabolic complications. Nevertheless most national insurance schemes in Europe have not allowed reimbursement for obese people using the Acomplia drug and have only agreed to cover the cost of the weight loss medication if diabetes and other related obesity problems are involved.

Despite a full approval in the United Kingdom for Acomplia, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) is at present evaluating the drug and probably in a couple of years time will give a verdict and advice on how and when the Acomplia weight loss drug should be prescribed to patients. This will have a big impact on whether insurance companies agree to reimburse the medicine for obese people.

Though they do not like to admit it, European countries will probably be more likely to allow the drug to be reimbursed by insurance companies if the FDA of the United States of America gives the drug the green light. Sometime in June the FDA will be ruling on the sale and marketing of Acomplia.