Popular Diet Drug to Be Released Over the Counter

Alli Will Be Available by Early Summer

If one of your New Years Resolutions was to lose weight and you found that following through is a little tough, your road to weight loss may get a little easier. The first over the counter diet pill was approved by the FDA this week. Alli, a weaker form of Xenical is set to be on store shelves by summer. GlaxoSmithKline will release a less strong version of their popular diet pill, Xenical. The drug will be released under the product name Alli.

There are diet drugs that are available over the counter now such as herbal supplements and appetite suppressing drugs such as Dexatrim. The effectiveness of these drugs is not known. Herbal supplements like Hoodia have gained popularity in the last few years. However, these medicines are not tested for effectiveness by the FDA and there is no way for consumers to how effective or how dangerous these drugs are.

The makers of Xenical wanted to bring the drug to the non-prescription market because sales have declined over the last few years. Xenical is one of the newer diet pills that blocks the absorption of fat; it was approved for prescription usage in 1999. Up until that time, one of the most widely prescribed diet drugs was a combination Phentermine and Fenfluramine better known as Fen-phen. Fen-Phen effected serotonin levels while decreasing a person's appetite. The drug was somewhat effective, but had very serious and sometimes fatal side effects like causing heart valve disease. Fenfluramine was blamed for causing the disorder and was taken off the market around 2000. Phentermine is still used and still widely prescribed today; the side effects of the drug are numerous and can include agitation, glaucoma, cardiovascular disease, insomnia, and hyperthyroidism.