Sanofi Aventis obesity drug ‘on sale in UK today’

Sanofi-Aventis’ new obesity drug, rimonabant (marketed as Acomplia), goes on sale today and is available for prescription, although it has not yet been approved for NHS prescription.

Rimonabant is a drug that inhibits the body’s CB1 receptors, which are found in the brain and other peripheral organs. This action moderates the endocannabinoid system, which is believed to play a significant part in the regulation of body weight.

The drug is targeted at obese patients, or overweight patients with type 2 diabetes and other risk factors. Rimonabant’s label, granted by the European Commission last week, indicates that as well as offering weight loss, the improvement shown in levels of ‘good’ HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides was greater than expected from weight loss alone.

The drug costs 1.97 pounds per tablet, which some experts believe could be an issue when rimonabant is approved for NHS use by NICE, despite the fact that obesity costs the NHS seven billion pounds per year.

Professor Anthony Barnett of Birmingham University , who was involved in the drug’s launch, remarked: “There is a distinct possibility that there will be some limitations on its use, which I think will be a great shame.”

“The real question is, can we afford not to treat?” he asked.

Sanofi-Aventis says rimonabant is the first drug to be able to combat multiple cardiometabolic risk factors. The company expects the drug to bring in revenues of $3 billion (1.65 billion pounds), which would not be an unreasonable figure, according to some analysts.

Orin Palit of AIG Private Bank told Bloomberg: “If it helps overweight people with the other health problems they have, the drug has a good chance to be seen as a therapeutic medication. With that in mind, the sales forecasts seem credible”

According to the UK’s Association for the Study of Obesity, obesity in adults and children is continuing to rise steadily.

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