Medical history was made yesterday as the Food & Drug Administration of America agreed for the sale and marketing of a non prescription diet medicine. We have been speculating about this in the Ukmedix news for some time and finally it seems that the majority if the board at the FDA decided that the orlistat drug should be released in a low dose version.

At present it is already possible to buy orlistat from your pharmacy but it requires a prescription from a doctor and is   called Xenical. The new version of the drug is exactly the same but comes in a lower dose and is called Alli. Alli will be able to be bought by anyone over the age of 18 directly from a pharmacy. It is expected that the pharmacists will use their digression in who and how to sell this new drug to members of the public as it should only be sold to overweight and obese people.

Xenical is made by Roche but the new version is being sold under licence by GlaxoSmithKline. Alli will be sold along with a recommendation to eat a low fat diet and to get exercise. If a high fat diet is consumed the diet drug will cause unpleasant side effects and loose stools. Orlistat is a unique drug that works by preventing some of the fat that you eat from getting into your digestive system and thus it comes out with your bowel movements.

Alli has not been approved for sale in the UK and those people wanting to get orlistat will have to rely on the prescription version for the time being. Ukmedix is not aware of any plans from GSK to sell the over the counter Alli drug in the UK at present. Orlistat can really give a boost to people losing weight and some studies showed that for every five pounds that were shed with diet and exercise the people who also used Xenical lost an extra two or three pounds. Because Xenical can block the absorption of nutritious items too it is recommended that users use multivitamins along with Xenical.