Experimental diet tablet shows promise

Associated Press

ATLANTA

An experimental diet pill helped about half the people who tried it lose some weight and keep it off a year later, without the heart problems that some earlier drugs caused, a study found.

Arena Pharmaceuticals’ lorcaserin is one of three drugs that are boosting hope for a new generation of more-effective weight-loss medicines. One gets a Food and Drug Administration review today and the others, later this year.

In the study, lorcaserin caused more people to lose at least 5 percent of their body weight over one year, more than twice the rate achieved by those on dummy pills.

Diet pills have had bad side effects or can’t be taken long-term. A low point came in 1997 when the popular “fen-phen” was pulled from the market after it was tied to heart-valve problems.

But now comes lorcaserin, a round, blue tablet that targets the same appetite pathway fen-phen did but in a more selective, and perhaps safer, manner.

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