Produção Nacional
Revisado por pares
Safety assessment of FDA-approved (orlistat and lorcaserin) anti-obesity medications
2015; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 14; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1517/14740338.2015.994502
ISSN1744-764X
AutoresBruno Halpern, Alfredo Halpern,
Tópico(s)Muscle metabolism and nutrition
ResumoIntroduction: Options for treating obesity remain limited despite it being a chronic, recurrent and morbid condition. New drugs that are proposed for its treatment encounter strong reluctance by regulatory agencies and many doctors.Areas covered: This review will focus on the safety of an older drug, orlistat (the only one still approved in the European Union) and a newer recently FDA-approved one, lorcaserin. Both are approved as long-term monotherapy for obesity in the United States of America and they have demonstrated median weight loss of nearly 3% over placebo.Expert opinion: Research, development and approval of new anti-obesity drugs are necessary for improved management of this chronic condition. Orlistat and lorcaserin are two FDA-approved drugs with limited overall efficacy. Nevertheless they are useful weapons for at least some obese individuals. Orlistat has a long and solid safety profile, whereas the safety of lorcaserin is still a matter of debate, mainly due to a lack of long-term data. However, lorcaserin's selective agonism on 5HT2c serotonin receptors diminishes concerns about valvulopathy associated with other serotonin agonists, such as fenfluramine.
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