Weight-loss pill to be freely available

A PHARMACEUTICAL company hopes to begin selling this year a fat-blocking pill directly to millions of overweight Americans who now only have access to a prescription version.

The Food and Drug Administration could approve over-the-counter sales of orlistat in the next few months, said George Quesnelle, president of GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare North America. If orlistat wins a nonprescription OK, it would be the first such weight-loss pill to get FDA sanction.

An FDA advisory panel voted 11-3 on Monday to recommend the regulatory agency approve the nonprescription form of orlistat, which Glaxo would market as Alli.

The agency is not bound by the recommendation but usually follows the advice of its expert panels.

When taken with meals, orlistat blocks the absorption of about one-quarter of any fat consumed.

A bevy of potentially distasteful and embarrassing side effects struck about half the participants in trials of the drug. The faecal incontinence, gas and oily discharge that spotted the undergarments of trial participants are likely to limit the appeal of the pill.