New Diet Pill Belviq Hits Market
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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — With more than 36 percent of American adults now classified as obese according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the numbers still climbing, doctors are clamoring for more pharmaceuticals to treat their patients.
Last year, the Food and Drug Administration obliged by approving the first new weight-loss drugs in more than a decade.
The first, Qsymia, has been available with a prescription for nearly 10 months. And now, the second, Belviq, will be available by prescription starting this week.
But even as doctors have begun scribbling prescriptions for these new weight loss medications, many dieters remember the long and checkered past of diet drugs in this country.
Some drugs that were originally viewed as rock stars for weight loss and appetite control were ultimately pulled off the market after it was found they posed serious health risks.
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