It turned out the appetite reducing action of diet drugs and heart problems can be so closely linked, an FDA advisory committee voted in 2012 to require all obesity drugs to undergo clinical trials that assessed cardiovascular risks.
Still, the concerning track record of diet drugs did not stop San Diego-based Arena Pharmaceuticals from seeking FDA approval for a diet drug candidate called Belviq (lorcaserin), a never-before-approved antidepressant-like preparation containing the phentermine found in Fen-Phen. The drug in common with Fen-Phen, phentermine, should have raised red flags and it did.
In 2010, the FDA Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee voted against approval of Belviq citing questions about potential cancer risks and valvular heart disease.
Industry Fights Back
Arena, Belviq's developer was livid about the FDA rejection, claiming it would have to eliminate as many as 66 positions because of the financial setback. In an open letter to the FDA on behalf of Arena, Michael Murphy of New World Investor charged that "The dramatic elevation of concern over rat cancer," could "result in irreparable damage to the bio-technology and pharmaceutical industry as a whole."
Two years later in 2012 the Belviq was approved by the FDA--but the triumph was to be short lived. In September, 2020, the FDA officially requested the drug's withdrawal from the market. Why? More patients taking Belviq were diagnosed with cancer compared to those taking a placebo said the FDA including pancreatic, colorectal, and lung cancers.
In addition to Meridia and Fen-Phen, Belviq is hardly the first drug withdrawn by the FDA because of dangerous safety signals that emerged after millions took the medications. Also withdrawn were Vioxx, Bextra, Baycol, Trovan, Seldane, Hismanal, Darvon, Mylotarg, Lotronex, Propulsid, Raxar, phenylpropanolamine (PPA) and phenacetin. How many were rushed through approval from industry pressure? Other drugs like Paxil, Avandia, Cylert, Ketek and Xarelto are under severe safety clouds.
Anyone who watches TV knows that ads for fattening, health destroying foods predominate (followed by ask-your-doctor drug ads.) Instead of approving and withdrawing new diet drugs to treat obesity, why don't government regulators curtail processed and junk food advertising like other countries? But of course there is more money in making people fat and then selling diet aids.
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