Anti-obesity pill ‘helps shed 12% of weight in year’

AN ANTI-OBESITY pill that can help slimmers lose 12% of their body weight in a year is undergoing trials, it emerged yesterday.

It tricks the mind into believing the stomach is full, suppressing the appetite and helping people who have lost weight to keep it off.

Experts believe obesity is the developed world’s most pressing health problem.

It has been linked to early morbidity, cancer, diabetes and reproductive problems.

Early test results for the new drug Excalia were released recently at the annual meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity in Boston in the US.

Overweight people who took the drug for six months lost 9% of their body weight, and went on to lose 12% if they took the drug for 48 weeks.

It works on the hypothalamus, which regulates weight and appetite, and tricks it into running the metabolism at a fast rate.

Gary Tollefson, president of Orexigen, the firm producing Excalia, said the pill worked more efficiently than first hoped.

Tam Fry, a board member of Britain’s National Obesity Forum, said: “It’s under trial in the US, and it is going to be four or five years before it comes to this country.

“If Excalia does what it says, dropping up to 12% of body size in a year, that is a huge percentage.”

He added people should remain responsible for their own health and not rely on the pharmaceutical industry.

“We would be concerned if people were just to shrug their shoulders and say, ‘If I get fat, I’ll just take a pill’.”