With over one third of all American adults being obese...

The FDA in America has sent out some guidelines and rules that will be given to drug companies that are thinking of making weight loss drugs. The guidelines will set out what is expected of the drugs in terms of health and safety as well as efficiency.

It has taken the FDA over ten years to come up with these guidelines and the idea is that much time and effort will be saved by drug companies seeking to make new weight loss remedies. One of the guidelines for example says that the drugs that are submitted for approval should be not only be able to make people lose weight but should also be able to help people keep off the weight for at least 12 months.

The guidelines say that the drugs should be aimed at obese people or at least people who have a BMI of minimum 27. Any drug that is shown to help people with obesity related illnesses like heart disease, hypertension and diabetes would be looked at more favourably.

With over one third of all American adults being obese and 20% of children being overweight too the potential for blockbuster drugs is huge. Millions of dollars go into the weight loss drug research industry but standards are very high and gimmicks and fads do not get past the FDA.

The FDA said that they were only interested in approving drugs that could help people who were in danger of getting very ill due to their obesity. Reading between the lines this means that the FDA were not interested in approving drugs for weight loss that would help people who were not really suffering from a weight problem but just wanted to shed pounds for cosmetic reasons.

The weight loss drug Acomplia meets all the requirements put out by the FDA in its guidelines however it is still stalled at the approval stage. Ukmedix News will be keeping an eye out for any new news on Acomplia and other weight loss drugs that are currently being evaluated by the FDA.