Roche's own study raises questions about pre-cancerous colon polyps says Public Citizen. And questions about a higher incidence of breast cancer in early clinical trials actually delayed FDA review of the drug.
Nor has the prescription version of Orlistat been successful--falling in sales from $135 million in 2002 to just $93 million in 2007 which some say led to GSK's last ditch recasting of it as an over the counter medication.
Of course it is no secret that GSK is hurting.
Since the New England Journal of Medicine outed its top selling diabetes drug, Avandia, in 2007 for raising the risk of heart attack by 43 percent and the FDA subsequently mandated a black box warning, the drug giant has lost $1 billion--not to mention its reputation and Wall Street luster because of the apparent subterfuge.
"When you lose the most profitable of your line, it has a disproportionate effect on the cost of goods and the gross margin," conceded Garnier to reporters reviewing last year's bleak performance.
GSK no doubt thought it could churn alli--whose lower case "a" may have been unconsciously to disassociate it with Avandia--like a bad movie or IPO. After all, even Merck's Vioxx made money after the law suits were paid.
But you can't blame GSK for the public's willingness to accept anal leakage and an eating disorder as the price of being thin.
"Don't we consider people that are using drugs to induce diarrhea as suffering from Bulimia, and in need of medical and psychological help?" asks a blogger writing about alli. "Maybe someone should consider repackaging Ipecac into pill form, and marketing it as the newest diet plan."
Especially because the traditional American tool kit of consumerism, impatience, control and overkill doesn't work with obesity--as failed fat surgeries and liposuctions testify.
And you can't treat overeating with a different kind of overeating.
In 1998, Frito Lay introduced a brand new potato chip made with a fat that was chemically processed to make it indigestible.
WOW potato chips boasted that they had no fat calories because the recently approved sucrose polyester, Olestra, passed right out of the body. Quickly.
But two years after its introduction, Wow's sales tanked. Not only did it not make people thin, they didn't like its "treatment effects." They weren't the kind of "wow" people were looking for.
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