Some people are pairing Johnson and Johnson’s migraine medicine Topamax (topiramate) with a phentermine to create an off-label diet treatment (Image: Bloomberg/Getty Images)
The makers of an appetite-sapping drug will this week take a second bite at the cherry of regulatory approval.
Two years ago the US Food and Drug Administration rejected Qnexa because it raises risks of heart complications and possible damage to fetuses in pregnant women. of Mountain View, California, which makes the drug, argues that given the current obesity epidemic, the . It adds that Qnexa eases the effects of diabetes and high blood pressure.
In a to the panel that will, by 17 April, decide Qnexa’s fate, FDA researchers direct the panellists to focus on whether the risks are manageable.
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An unusual complication is that Qnexa is a mixture of two legally available drugs – topiramate (marketed as Topamax, pictured) and phentermine and – so some people are attempting to obtain its effects by going to clinics which may supply both.
The only treatment that matches the weight loss seen with Qnexa is stomach-stapling surgery, which carries significant risks and cannot realistically be offered to the vast numbers of people who are obese, says of University College London.
of Imperial College London urges approval of Qnexa, but only for use in obese people who already have other complications, such as diabetes. “It won’t make them thin or happy, but it could make them healthier,” he says.
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