Diet Pills Alli: Low-Dose Xenical

Glaxosmithkline has a tip for people who decide to try Alli, the over-the-counter weight-loss drug it is launching with a multimillion-dollar advertising blitz - keep an extra pair of pants handy.

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You won't lose weight in your sleep or shed pounds while eating anything you want - that's the sobering message from the maker of a weight loss pill poised to hit shelves next month.

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Stop right now! These are no miracle pills, and they definitely don’t provide a long term solution

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Weight Loss is one of the important issue is being discussed in New York. GlaxoSmithKline is a well-known healthcare production. It is trying to practice the country for alli by having exhibit in New York City.

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GlaxoSmithKline a famous healthcare industry opened an enlightening reveal in New York City to prepare the country for Alli, the first over-the-counter diet pill approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Obesity is Global mess and its reach is prevalent in the world. Whether it is aged, adults, teens and children, Obesity and weight gain problem is seen among all of them. It becomes an epidemic for the whole world. People's hopes are ridiculously high when it comes to diet pills. That leads to disappointment and bad word of mouth. But GlaxoSmithKline has apparently erudite the lesson and  is counting on alli to become a star money maker. The company is spending $150 million on marketing of Alli this year, making it one of the drug maker's biggest campaigns to date.

Alli diet pill is presently under its pre-launch test. This weight loss medication works by obstructing the fat absorption into the body. Consumption of this diet drug thereby is effective in giving liberal opportunity to the already stored in fat to generate the required energy, assisting in trimming down of excessive fat. This is in turn consequential ineffective weight loss . Health experts are concerned about the potential abuse of the Alli drug once the diet pill becomes more readily available. There is particular concern over its use in children as well as adults who do not need tolose weight in order to maintain a healthy body . We call Alli is the form of “Lifestyle Diet Products" because Alli is designed to work easily with your busy lifestyle to give you maximum benefit and weight loss. Alli diet pills are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration agency (FDA), theirside effects are monitored and they may be advertised and prescribed for weight loss under certain condition and in certain pill-dosages.

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In the middle of the Avandia blowup, GlaxoSmithKline this week is launching the new over-the-counter diet pill "Alli." The company says it's spending 150 million bucks on the first-year marketing of the formerly prescription-only Xenical from Roche.

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Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline isn't wasting any time. On Monday, about a month before its over-the-counter (OTC) weight-loss drug alli® will actually be on store shelves throughout America, the company opened a multimedia exhibit in the much-shopped and often congested Union Square area of Manhattan.

This "look, learn, but don't buy" preview of the only weight-loss medication currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and available without a prescription is getting the same sort of advance media play that kicked off campaigns for prescription drugs such as Viagra and the sleeping aid Lunesta.

But is alli being over-hyped? GlaxoSmithKline doesn't think so.

"We're positioning alli as an honest voice in a category known for hype," said Joe Cadle, marketing director of GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare. "The alli experience will teach people the difference between alli and the rest of the weight-loss category." The OTC dosage of alli (orlistat) is 60 milligrams (mg), a dilution of the prescription amount. Orlistat is not a new weight-loss drug; the FDA approved it in 1999.

Cadle said that people currently spend $1 billion a year on ineffective weight-loss products that make unrealistic claims. "alli is much more than just pills in a bottle," he said, adding that GlaxoSmithKline was offering a companion book called Are You Losing It? Losing Weight Without Losing Your Mind and other weight-loss material.

But the magic question seeking the magic answer for millions of overweight Americans is, "Does it work?"

Not surprisingly, Cadle said it does, but not by itself. "alli is not a magic pill," he said. "You have to eat a reduced-calorie, low-fat diet and be willing to do the work. If you do, you can lose 50 percent more weight. If you lose 10 pounds without taking alli, you could lose 15 when taking it."

Marketed to overweight adults over age 18, alli is expected to cost between $1 and $2 a day. It works by blocking the body's absorption of fat.

It's designed not to have an adverse effect on the cardiovascular system as did other weight-loss products such as ephedra, Cadle said. The FDA banned ephedra after medical evidence indicated it increased heart attack risk.

Alli is not without its critics, however, chief among them Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group in Washington, D.C., who has spoken against orlistat's side effects before.

When another pharmaceutical company, Roche, marketed orlistat in prescription strength as Xenical, Wolfe spoke out. "Animal studies done by Roche show that rats developed aberrant crypti foci, ACF, precancerous lesions in the colon from Orlistat, which put them at higher risk of colon cancer," Wolfe said in a recent interview. "An independent study by researchers in 2006 found the same thing."

But another expert said Wolfe's concerns are unfounded.

"There are more than 100 clinical studies, including 30,000 clinical trial patients, and nine years of post-marketing surveillance with more than 29 million patient treatments, all showing no such risk with orlistat use," said Dr. Vidhu Bansal, director of medical affairs for GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare. "The FDA concluded the same in their recent review," she added.

Wolfe maintained that the FDA relied heavily on testimony by a panel comprised of pharmaceutical company representatives. But that is only part of the difficulty, he said. The side effects were embarrassing, dramatic and distasteful enough to cause orlistat to lose popularity.

"The RX (prescription) drug's popularity went down, because it caused all sorts of acute problems, mainly gastrointestinal," Wolfe said. "Twenty-five percent of people got oily spotting (from the rectum), because the fat is going in one end and coming out the other. You definitely wouldn't want to take it while on a first date."

Wolfe said some people also experienced gas, loose or more frequent stools, and inhibition of fat-soluble vitamins. "We wanted the FDA to ban the RX version," he said. "It should never have been approved for over-the-counter sales."

But the FDA denied Public Citizens' petition.

This is precisely why GlaxoSmithKline is strongly recommending that a person adopt a low-fat diet when using alli. "These unwelcome side effects will only occur if people eat too much fat while taking the weight-loss drug, Cadle said. "And if they eat too much fat, then they're not following the program."

Cadle said alli will be sold in drugstores, mass market retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target, club warehouse stores, and some grocery stores.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/cp/HealthScout/070522/6052208AU.html

The first FDA-approved, over-the-counter diet pill hits shelves this summer. The pill, only available by prescription until now, promises to melt away fat, but does it really work?

(The following is a transcript from KXAN's Shannon Wolfson.)

We'd all like that quick fix: no more long hours at the gym and a little cheat on our diets.
 
So how about a pill to help you lose 5 percent of your body fat?

The FDA says a pill called Alli can help you do it.
 
Alli goes on sale at your local drug store without a prescription this summer.
 
Sound too good to be true?

Family physician Dr. Kerry Rhodes says it just might be.

"It's not gonna be the rapid weight loss or a great quantity of weight loss that people would hope for," said Rhodes.

Rhodes has prescribed the pill for obese patients but says the success is limited.

"It's not highly successful like people would want it to be necessarily. You'll see anywhere from a three- to five-pound extra weight loss on top of what you might obtain from diet and exercise over a six-month period," said Rhodes.
 
Here's how it works: you take one pill three times a day with a meal.

Alli works in your intestines to block some of the fat you eat from being absorbed and digested.

But if the fat isn't being absorbed, it has to go somewhere, and that leads to some pretty uncomfortable side effects.

"Bloating and gas and bowel pattern change, which is not very comfortable in some people," said Rhodes.

Here's the reality: you've heard it before, and any medical expert will tell you that no pill, over-the-counter, or prescription, is going to take the weight off and keep it off without a healthy diet and plenty of exercise.

Kathy Redden has been a fitness trainer for 18 years. She says there's no substitute for hard work.

"Everybody wants a quick fix. Everybody wants results quickly and fast, and unfortunately, health is just not something that comes fast. It takes time, it takes commitment, it takes effort," said Redden.
 
And she worries about those looking for a magic pill.

"The side effects that are noticeable are not great, but they're livable, but what about the long-term effects, that it hasn't been around long enough to see what those are?" said Redden.
 
In a clinical trial, 35 percent of patients gained the weight back after stopping the drug.

Starting next month, you can get it without a prescription for about $55 a month.

Just don't plan on skipping your next workout.

The consumer advocacy group Public Citizen strongly opposes selling Alli over-the-counter, calling it, "the height of recklessness" and "a dangerous mistake" because of questionable benefits and possible adverse effects.

Source: http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=6544894&nav=0s3d