Drugs, Weight Loss | featured news

The Food and Drug Administration has approved Arena Pharmaceutical's anti-obesity pill Belviq, the first new prescription drug for long-term weight loss to enter the U.S. market in over a decade.

Federal health regulators have decided not to approve an experimental diet pill called Qnexa, which had been touted by many experts as the most promising weight-loss drug in more than a decade.

Herbal medicines marketed as weight loss aids have been found to include a drug withdrawn in Europe and US on safety grounds.

Final data from a new study showed that the diet drug Meridia increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes in patients who already have heart disease, but offered only moderate weight loss.