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CNN Live At Daybreak

Diet Pills Disappointing

Aired August 22, 2001 - 07:16   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the age-old battle against the bulge. Two prescription diet pills have come on the market with great fanfare. But patients and doctors alike say the medicines have been disappointing.

More now from CNN's medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tina Wilson has tried it all, and failed. First, she went on an appetite suppressant called Meridia.

TINA WILSON, TRYING TO LOSE WEIGHT: When Meridia hit, I was excited about that, hoping that Meridia would be very good, and tried Meridia, and it did absolutely nothing.

COHEN: So she moved on to Xenical, a drug that binds with some of the fat you eat and flushes it out of your body.

WILSON: It did not change the weight loss at all. I had some embarrassing moments on it, because, you know, it causes gas and intestinal problems.

COHEN: Weight loss doctors interviewed by CNN say Wilson's experience is somewhat typical. They say while some of their patients have done very well on these drugs, most have not.

Dr. Stephen Heymsfield, an obesity expert, says in his experience, a 200-pound person might lose only about 10 pounds on the drugs.

DR. STEPHEN HEYMSFIELD, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: The weight loss is not very great with these drugs.

COHEN: Plus, the drugs aren't cheap -- about $50 to $100 per month, which insurance usually won't pay for. Dr. Heymsfield says his patients weren't happy paying out of pocket for marginal results.

HEYMSFIELD: Especially if they're paying knowing that taking the drug for a lifetime is what's needed, you don't just take it for a month or two months. Once you stop taking the drugs, you usually regain the weight again. COHEN: Roche Laboratories, which makes Xenical, gave us this statement. "Sales are not what we hoped they would be. It's going to take us longer than we originally anticipated to build a prescription weight loss category."

Abbott Laboratories, which makes Meridia, declined to be interviewed on camera. A spokeswoman told CNN patients do lose significant amounts of weights on the drug, and that Abbott has not been disappointed by the sales.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: So what's the next step for prescription diet pills? Well, there are several different drugs that are in the research pipeline. One researcher recently published a study saying that he is trying to combine Meridia with a hormone called leptin. He managed to make mice slim down, and, well, now he's going to try it out in people.

MCEDWARDS: That sounds interesting. But there aren't just -- it's just an issue of prescription drugs, is it? I mean, there's lots of stuff over the counter that you can get and try to lose weight.

COHEN: Exactly.

MCEDWARDS: Tell us about that.

COHEN: We went shopping last night. You can see what we bought. There are pills, there are potions, there are bars, there are various things that you can buy just in any store -- in a supermarket, in a Wal-Mart, anywhere really.

I'll point out my two personal favorites: This one is "lose up to 10 pounds in 48 hours."

MCEDWARDS: And "keep it off," I think it also says. We did black out the name, because we don't want to be endorsing any products. But, you know, something you drink, come on.

COHEN: Right.

MCEDWARDS: I mean

(CROSSTALK)

COHEN: And this is $20. This bottle is $20.

MCEDWARDS: Does it work? Does anybody know if it works?

COHEN: Nobody really knows if it works. But this is what we hear over and over again from experts is that, yes, you may indeed lose weight. Because if all you're going to do is drink this, you are going to lose weight. But are you going to do that the rest of your life?

MCEDWARDS: Right. COHEN: I mean, how in the world are you going to do that? So what's going to happen? You are going to put the weight back on. So this is a life-long kind of thing.

The other problem is that these kinds of supplements here can interfere with drugs that you might be taking. And many people, when they go to the doctor, don't tell the doctor, oh, I'm taking these drugs. There is a study out today that says that about 1 out of 4 young, obese women take products such as these, and usually they don't tell their doctor. And some of these products can actually be dangerous. If they contain ephedra, for example, the FDA is concerned that ephedra might cause heart problems, strokes, psychosis, all sorts of things.

MCEDWARDS: So possibly dangerous. Watch what kind of combinations you take them in. But also quite expensive. I mean, this stuff costs quite a bit of money, doesn't it?

COHEN: Exactly. As I said, $74 for this just what you see here on the table. This alone was $20. This was about $10 or $12. This is my other favorite: "exercise in a bottle."

MCEDWARDS: Yes.

COHEN: I mean, I think that's something that's so important to remember. I mean, how can you think that you can take something out of -- eat something out of a bottle that would replace exercise? I mean...

MCEDWARDS: Well, that -- that gets down to the cultural question, isn't it? I mean, why as a culture do we look towards a bottle or a pill or a prescription to lose weight?

COHEN: Because we all want the easy answer.

MCEDWARDS: Right.

COHEN: And we all want to just take it for a couple of days, maybe a month. We don't realize that we may have to take it our whole life. We don't want to think it's not going to work. We want to think that it's a magic bullet, and that we won't have to exercise, we won't have to have discipline. And that's unfortunately what it takes.

MCEDWARDS: Elizabeth Cohen, thanks very much -- appreciate it.

And we are going to be focusing on the battle against the bulge throughout the day today here on CNN. Two hours from now, we'll find out about dieting and weight control on line.

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