At last some good news for Sanofi Aventis! The drug company has been facing delays in getting approval from the FDA in the United States for its weight loss drug Acomplia and also is in court with the German health authorities over the fact that they classified Acomplia as a lifestyle drug and not reimbursable from insurance companies. The good news is that Acomplia is very likely to receive the desired classification in France as the Independent Transparency Committee that advises the French Government on such matters have given it a ‘favorable recommendation’ for reimbursable status from insurance companies and the state.

While this sounds good on the whole the small print of the recommendation notes that it should only be reimbursed for individuals who are obese and who have type 2 diabetes and whose diabetes other diabetes drugs cannot control.

This means that overweight and obese people who don’t have diabetes will have to pay for the drug themselves and this is not good news for Acomplia and Sanofi but it is nevertheless better than the recommendations that were given to the German Health Authorities that did not recommend any reimbursement of any sort for any patients. At this point Sanofi Aventis has not said whether they will try to appeal the recommendation like it is doing in Germany or whether it will just leave the classification as it is.

At present Sanofi is very keen to show that Acomplia is not a lifestyle drug and that it doesn’t just help with weight loss but is also good for diabetics and for people with high cholesterol. If they can show that this drug is not just about weight loss than they will be onto a blockbuster drug that will be part of national health plans all over the world.

The drug is still stalled in America but Sanofi hope that it will get the green light this year. At present Acomplia is on sale in the UK, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Ireland, Mexico, Argentina and Austria.