OTC Orlistat? Blech.
Posted January 25, 2006 at 8:48 am
I caught just a snippet of this on the news shows this morning, but didn’t manage to find out what they were talking about until I checked my Google alerts. Apparently the FDA has approved over-the-counter Orlistat.
The biggest beneficiary of this move is GlaxoSmithKline, who, according to Forbes, had seen a 60% drop in the sale of Xenical, the prescription version of Orlistat. They benefit because the OTC formula is expected to run $50-100 a month and it only works as long as you take it.
If they want to sell more Orlistat, I don’t know why they don’t prescribe it for constipation, since it seems like that’s its big win (nothing like runny stools to help you moderate your diet).
Check out Jimmy Moore and Diet Blog for more on why this is just bad news.
January 25th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
The thing that boggles my mind is that people taking the drug only lost 5-6 more pounds than people on the placebo. I could sneeze and lose that much weight :) Maybe that doesn’t seem like much to me because I weigh so much. Perhaps on a 120-130 pound frame it is more noticable, but it still does not seem like a big enough drop to be worth taking a pill for.