New Obesity Drugs Work – But Are They Worth It?

There are three new obesity drugs that have gone through phase III clinical trials and are now before the FDA; Qnexa, Contrave, and Lorcaserin.

Each of the drugs work and each of the drugs have side effects. The most effective drug, Qnexa, produces a 13-15% body weight reduction by decreasing appetite and increasing the sensational of being full, but Qnexa also has the most side effects and a high rate of people who discontinued the study due to side effects, 18% over the 9% placebo dropout rate. Qnexa’s side effects include anxiety, depression, sleep disorder, and an increase in fertility in women despite the use of birth control methods. While the women of the study who came to full term reported no birth defects, birth defects were present in laboratory animal testing.

Contrave produces a 5-10% decrease in body weight, but has the side effects of nausea, dizziness, abdominal pain, and ringing in the ears, and had a 13% dropout rate above the placebo group.

Lorcaserin effects serotonin levels and has only a 5% body weight decrease, but side effects include only headaches, and the dropout rate of the drug group and the placebo group were the same. Qnexa is before the FDA right now, Lorcaserin goes before the board in September, and FDA decisions concerning Contrave should be released by the beginning of 2011.