Qnexa, Contrave, and Lorcaserin 3 Powerful New Diet Drugs

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As anyone can attest to, losing body fat is one of the toughest challenges a person can face.  However, a new wave of weight loss drugs known as Qnexa, Contrave, and Lorcaserin could make cutting fat as easy as popping a single pill.  In fact, one of these pills has proven to cut body fat by 10 to 11%!

We all know what we need to do to cut fat and get the ripped physique we’ve always dreamed of.  Simply work out, eat the right foods, and avoid falling back into the bad habits that can pack fat right back on.  Unfortunately, following this plan is a lot easier said than done.  In fact, with the way we live today, almost everyone falls off of their weight/fat loss goals at some point.

Most people are too busy with work and other activities to devote their full time to hitting the gym and planning meals.  And with the amount of energy that people have to put into their everyday lives, it can be almost impossible to stick with any kind of fat loss plan.  That’s why some turn to alternative means of fat loss such as pills and diet drugs.

Diet drugs are increasingly popular because they only involve popping a pill in order to trim your waistline.  This can save people hours of sweating their asses off in the gym in addition to the freedom it gives them to eat more of what they want.  Of course not every fat loss pill is created equal so it can be tough to decide which ones to use these days.  But that decision could be made a lot easier real soon since there is a new wave of diet drugs that could blow everything else off the market!

The most exciting drug involved in this group is made by a company called Vivus.  The drug in question is called Qnexa, and it is a small pill which incorporates the usage of two already successful weight loss drugs in phentermine and topiramate.  Since Qnexa uses both compounds, it is considered much more effective than just one or the other alone.  When used once daily, Qnexa works to suppress appetite and satiety (the condition of being full).  And while all of Qnexa’s functions sound really cool, I haven’t even gotten to the actual results yet.

When Qnexa was used in a clinical trial on a random sampling of patients, they lost 10 to 11% of their body weight in a year!  This is in great contrast to the other patients who were given a placebo drug and only lost around 2% of their body weight during the same year.  This 9% difference between Qnexa’s results and the placebo drug are well above the Food and Drug Administration’s requirement of 5% for approval.  So it is very likely that we could be seeing Qnexa hit store shelves very soon.

Unfortunately, there will be a number of barriers for Qnexa to overcome before Vivus can begin putting this potential wonder drug on the market.  For one thing, the FDA has concerns that Qnexa might not be the safest drug in the world for people to use.  This is mainly due to the two predominant ingredients that were mentioned before – phentermine and topiramate. 

Phentermine has been used for 50 years as an appetite suppressor and eventually received negative media attention after being linked to the fen-phen combo that caused heart valve damage. There was no evidence that phentermine was the root cause, but the negative attention still has people worried.  Even if phentermine doesn’t have anything to do with heart valve damage, it’s still considered very risky since it is a stimulant that shouldn’t be used long-term.

The other ingredient in Qnexa is topiramate and it’s also considered to be very risky as well.  The side effects of topiramate include tingling in the toes and fingers as well as diminished memory and concentration.  Paul Ernsberger, who is a professor of nutrition and neuroscientist at Case Western, summed up the side effects of topiramate by saying, “People call it the stupid pill.  They go around in the fog.”

Despite criticisms, Vivus executives are very confident in their overall product.  They say that by combing both drugs, patients will only need low doses which will reduce the side effects greatly.  Furthermore, it was reported in trials that patients didn’t have any of the potential cognitive problems people initially feared.  But the obstacles for Qnexa don’t simply end with side effects that may or may not be there.    

Another thing that could hurt Qnexa’s cause is that doctors are already prescribing phentermine and topiramate separately.  And the way things look thus far, prescribing a single pill could be easier for patients and much cheaper for insurers.  If insurers deem Qnexa to be too expensive to cover, they may just require that doctors either prescribe topiramate or phentermine alone.  This would definitely cut into the profits of Qnexa and make it more difficult for Vivus to sell it.   

If Qnexa doesn’t work out then there is also a new drug from a company called Orexigen on the horizon.  Orexigan’s drug is called Contrave and it is a combination of two existing drugs that have little to do with weight loss (at least in their marketed forms).  One of the ingredients is bupropion which is sold as Zyban and it helps people stop smoking.  The other key ingredient is called naltrexone and it is used as a drug addiction treatment.  Orexigan found they could combine the two drugs to create a powerful product in Contrave that can reduce food cravings.

Contrave definitely reduced the cravings that Becky Peterson was having while she used the drug during a year-long trial.  By using Contrave, Peterson was able to drop from 246 pounds down to 210 pounds.  This 14% weight decrease isn’t the only thing that Peterson was able to shed on the trial as she also kicked a few other nasty habits too.  She said, “I also broke some bad habits while I was on it like picking at my nails and drinking coffee.”

The only problem with Contrave is that Becky Peterson is a pretty big exception as far as the results go.  That’s because most patients who use Contrave don’t experience as dramatic results as those who use Qnexa.  But on the plus side, Contrave doesn’t have anywhere near the amount of side effects that Qnexa does which should aid Orexigan’s quest to have their weight loss drug approved by the FDA.

One more company which is hoping its drug will pass the stingy FDA requirements is Arena Pharmaceuticals.  Arena has a drug in trials called Lorcaserin that targets the brain to control people’s appetite.  Many have pointed out that this is the same thing fenfluramine did (the main component at the center of the heart valve damage controversy), but the difference is that Lorcaserin hasn’t been proven to cause any of the same heart valve damage.

Another thing that Lorcaserin has going for it is that it’s a totally new drug meaning it won’t have any generics to compete against right now.  But, much like Contrave, Lorcaserin isn’t producing the dramatic results that Qnexa is meaning it’s not drawing as much attention either.  This can certainly be seen from the small investment increase (shares are up 5%) Arena Pharmaceuticals has received since developing their weight loss drug. 

Contrast this to the fact that Vivus shares are up 90% while Orexigan has also experienced healthy growth with their shares increasing by 54%.  Even though Arena Pharmaceuticals is lagging behind in the investment sector, Orexigan CEO Michael Narachi seems to think that there will be plenty of room for all three drugs to survive when/if they hit the market as he said, “This isn’t a winner-take-all-situation.  It’s more of a rising tide floats all boats.” 

Whether or not Narachi’s words ring true and the market for weight loss drugs is definitely rising remains to be seen.  In fact, we don’t even know if all three drugs will pass the four stages that the FDA sets forth before a drug can be put on the shelves.  However, it is definitely encouraging that so many companies are making an attempt to put working weight loss drugs on the market.  And with so many big businesses making an effort to create the perfect weight loss drug, we may very well see such a thing in our lifetime.

Here are some links to discuss Qnexa, Contrave, and Lorcaserin on the EliteFitness.com discussion forums.

Qnexa diet drug with phentermine & topamax - topiramate - for weight loss

Contrave from Orexigan, new diet drug made of bupropion and naltrexone

Lorcaserin from Arena Pharma - new diet drug targets the brain to control appetite

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