because it represents good value for money...

The good news for the drug company Sanofi-Aventis is that the British National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence or NICE for short has recommended that their weight loss medication Acomplia should be made available to overweight and obese individuals because it represents good value for money for the state National Health Service.

This is an extremely important move for the general acceptance of the medicine as an obesity fighting drug because some countries in Europe have not given it the credit that Sanofi-Aventis say that it deserves. For example in Germany health insurance companies are not required to reimburse people who use it as it has been classified as a lifestyle drug over there. Sanofi-Aventis has been fighting this classification because they say not only does the drug help people to lose weight but also can alleviate the symptoms of diabetes and more obesity related conditions.

Worldwide the Acomplia weight loss medication has had sales of around £62 Million which while it sounds a lot is far short of the target that Sanofi-Aventis had set for itself. The Acomplia weight loss drug has not been approved for selling in America yet and this is the reason why sales expectations have been lowered. It is hope that sometime in 2009 when the results of clinical tests are announced that the full approval will be forthcoming from the Food & Drug Administration.

In the United Kingdom sales of the Acomplia weight loss drug have been very good and this is because of a determined effort by the British government to deal with obesity especially among younger adults. Prescriptions for weight loss medication in the United Kingdom have increased greatly over the last three years according to official government figures.  The government has also admitted that the country faces an obesity epidemic.