Anti-Obesity Drugs Currently Used And New Compounds In Clinical Development

Obesity is a chronic disease which requires treatment. As lifestyle interventions alone hardly ever result in long-term weight loss, pharmacotherapy is an important adjunct to lifestyle measures to improve the induction and maintenance of weight loss. Owing to the limited options currently available for the pharmacological treatment of obesity, it is imperative to develop new safe compounds. This study aims to review the current medications approved by European Medicines Agency and United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of obesity, focusing essentially on their benefits and risks, as well as on the new drugs which are presently under clinical trials. Moreover, it lists the anti-obesity agents that have been recently withdrawn from the market. A revision of the scientific literature was carried out, through a search on Pubmed for papers published from January 2010 to January 2013. Orlistat (Xenical (R)) is currently the only long-term pharmacotherapy for obesity available in the European market, as rimonabant and sibutramine were with-drawn in 2008 and 2010, respectively, due to serious psychiatric and cardiovascular adverse effects. Lorcaserin (Belviq (R)) and the association of phentermine and topiramate (Qsymia(TM)) were recently approved by FDA. Orlistat suppresses appetite inhibiting gastrointestinal lipase, being its adverse effects mostly gastrointestinal. Lorcaserin activates 5-HT2C receptors, phentermine is a norepinephrine releasing drug, and topiramate is an anticonvulsivant drug with weight loss properties. (C) 2014 Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.