Weight Loss Medication Lorcaserin Trial Helped Type 2 Diabetics Lose a Lot of Weight
Lorcaserin
Lorcaserin is a weight-loss medication made by Arena Pharmaceuticals. Lorcaserin is aimed towards obese individuals and not overweight individuals. There is a big difference between being overweight and obese. An obese person is about 50 pounds over their target ideal weight. So an individual who is 5 foot tall is considered obese at 153 pounds.
Obesity and Diabetics
For an individual who has diabetes the amount of pounds that determine an obese person can be lower. For example a 5 foot tall woman with diabetes that weighs 143 pounds may be considered obese because of how the extra weight effects her diabetes and how much healthier and the good possibility that by losing those extra 40 pounds her diabetes could be much more manageable.
The Results of a 1-Year Clinical Trial
The clinical trial was called the BLOOM-DM study. Six hundred and four (604) type 2 obese or near obese diabetics participated in the study. Two hundred and fifty-three (253) of the diabetics were given a placebo, two hundred and fifty-six (256) diabetics were given a dose of 10mg twice a day and the remaining ninety five (95) diabetics were given a dose of 10mg once a day.
The Final Results
The following information is from the report “37.5% of the lorcaserin 10mg twice daily participants lost 5% or more of their body weight, compared to 16.1% for the placebo group. The mean weight loss of all the lorcaserin 10mg twice daily participants was 4.7kg (4.5%), compared to 1.6kg (1.5%) in the placebo group.16.3% of the lorcaserin 10mg twice daily participants lost at least 10% of their body weight, compared to 4.4%% for the placebo group.”
FDA Requires More Information before Approval
The FDA has denied the approval of lorcaserin at this point in time pending more information on the cancer rates in animal studies. In addition, to more information on the lorcaserins efficacy.
Source: http://www.arenapharm.com/